Federal judges order Trump administration reinstate some federal workers who were fired last month

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the Office of Personnel Management couldn't give guidance on who to terminate

Published: March 13, 2025 1:10pm

Updated: March 13, 2025 10:46pm

Two federal judges on Thursday ruled that the Trump administration had to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were fired last month from multiple federal agencies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, in San Francisco, said the workers fired from the department of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs had to be reinstated. 

Alsup also said the Office of Personnel Management couldn't give guidance on who to terminate, according to ABC News.

A second federal judge in Maryland on Thursday night approved a temporary restraining order against dozens of agencies, departments and their leaderships over their mass terminations of federal employees. 

U.S. District Judge James Bredar's order impacted fired employees from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, per NBC News, and those employees must be temporarily rehired. 

“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice," Bredar wrote in his ruling. "It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for 'performance' or other individualized reasons.

"On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively,” he added.

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