SAN FRANCISCO - Tens of thousands of federal government probationary workers fired in recent weeks as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts to the federal workforce must be reinstated immediately, a California judge ordered Thursday.

The decision from U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco is one of the most far-reaching court defeats so far in the Trump administration's efforts, led by top White House adviser Elon Musk, to gut the federal bureaucracy.

The judge ordered six federal agencies - the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Treasury - to reinstate recently hired or promoted probationary employees who were terminated by the Trump administration.

Alsup, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said the U.S. Office of Personnel Management - the federal government's human resources agency - lacked the authority to order the firings and did so unlawfully. However, the judge only cited evidence of improper terminations at the six agencies, declining to order the reinstatement of probationary workers at 16 other agencies cited by unions in a lawsuit challenging the layoffs.

He also said the Trump administration tried to circumvent protections for federal workers by falsely claiming the reason for their termination was their "performance."

“It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement, accused the judge of "attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the executive branch" and signaled an appeal was likely. She did not say whether the administration plans to comply with the order.

The judge's decision came in case brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and other government employee unions, which sued seeking to reverse the terminations.

Everett Kelley, national president of AFGE, said the union is pleased by Alsup's decision to reinstate probationary workers "who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public."

Kelley said his union will "keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back."

Alsup also extended a temporary restraining order that he granted plaintiffs last month to block the OPM from ordering agencies to fire probationary employees. Alsup had declined at the time to require that fired workers get their jobs back.

The Trump Justice Department has argued the OPM directive to federal departments, issued in a Jan. 20 memo, was not an order to fire probationary workers but simply to identify probationary workers who were not "mission critical" and could be fired.

Federal employees in probationary status - targeted in an initial round of Trump firings - were either recently hired or promoted, usually within the past year. They lack civil service protections of career government employees, making them easier to fire for performance issues.

The judge's decision came as federal departments faced a deadline Thursday to prepare large-scale "reductions in force" as part of a deeper second wave of terminations that go beyond probationary workers by targeting career employees. The judge did not address this second round of firings in his order. (Source: USA Today)

Story Date: March 14, 2025