The court’s ruling follows the announcement by Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump of personnel layoffs in an effort to reduce administration expenses.
The Donald Trump administration’s order ordering federal agencies to fire a large number of newly hired employees was temporarily blocked by a US federal judge on Thursday, according to Reuters.
According to William Alsup, a district judge in San Francisco, the US Office of Personnel Management does not have the power to order federal agencies to fire any employees, including those who are probationary and would usually have less than one year of experience.
Following the announcement by US President Donald Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who is co-chairing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that they will lay off staff in order to reduce administration expenses, the court issued its order.
Judge Alsup directed the personnel management official to withdraw a January 20 memo and a February 14 email that directed government agencies to find probationary employees who were not “mission-critical” and terminate them.
National parks, scientific research, and veteran services will all suffer as a result of the mass terminations of government employees that started earlier this month, the court said.
Probationary staff are essential to our government. From a low level, they rise through the ranks. We rejuvenate ourselves in this way,” Judge Alsup stated.
According to reports, the Department of Defense plans to terminate 5,400 probationary staff on Friday as the issue falls beyond the jurisdiction of the employee unions’ case. The government had been directed by the judge to inform the defense department that their memo was invalid, and so it was the email.
Regarding the mass firings, Everett Kelley, president of American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions that is a plaintiff on the case, said, “These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work.”
The letter and email only urged agencies to evaluate their probationary employees and determine who might be fired, according to the US Justice Department’s court argument on behalf of the Trump administration. “It was just a request, not an order to fire employees,” they said.
Agency plans for a “significant reduction” in workforce were to be submitted by March 13th, according to another White House document released on Wednesday.
