Updated March 13, 2025 at 14:59 PM ET
Thousands of federal employees fired by the Trump administration must be offered job reinstatement within the next week, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco has ruled, because he said they were terminated unlawfully.
"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 is a lie," Judge William Alsup, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said before issuing his ruling from the bench.
The Thursday decision marks a significant stand against President Trump's sweeping efforts to remake the federal government. The White House pledged to appeal.
The administration's job cuts targeted federal workers with probationary status, which usually means newer workers, and makes them easier to let go. Employees recently promoted into a new position can also be considered probationary.
Many probationary employees were fired for "performance reasons," according to their termination notices, even though many employees had received positive feedback from supervisors.
"It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements," Alsup said.
The judge also ordered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to prove within seven days that it had offered reinstatement to all fired probationary employees at the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.
The White House is blasting the decision. "A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch – singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President's agenda. If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves."
Leavitt added: "The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order."
Requests for comment were submitted to the agencies affected by the judge's ruling. Spokespeople for the VA and the Interior Department said they don't comment on pending litigation.
The decision comes as a result of a lawsuit brought by a group of unions and civic groups on behalf of workers fired from a host of agencies and sub-agencies.
In a charged, sometimes confrontational court hearing on Thursday, Judge Alsup challenged the government's argument that OPM, which acts as the government's HR department, had not directly ordered the termination of probationary employees but had left that decision to individual federal agencies and served merely as a coordinating body.
"The court rejects the government's attempt to use these press releases and to read between the lines to say the agency heads made their own decision with no direction from OPM," Alsup said.
The judge also bridled that OPM's acting director, Charles Ezell, and his senior adviser, Noah Peters, did not attend the hearing.
"You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You're afraid to do so because you know cross-examination would reveal the truth," Alsup said, addressing OPM's legal team. "I tend to doubt that you're telling me the truth."
The American Federation of Government Employees is one of the plaintiffs in the case, and its president, Everett Kelley, said in a statement that AFGE is pleased with the reinstatement of "probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public."
"These mass-firings of federal workers were not just an attack on government agencies and their ability to function, they were also a direct assault on public lands, wildlife, and the rule of law," Erik Molvar — executive director of Western Watersheds Project, which is also a plaintiff in the case — said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the same judge issued a temporary restraining order in the same case, saying the firings were illegal but noted many federal agencies had yet to rehire probationary workers. "Maybe that's why we need an injunction that tells them to rehire them," he said Thursday.
Judge Alsup did make it clear that agencies are allowed to reduce their workforce, as long as it's done legally.
Have information you want to share about ongoing changes across the federal government? NPR's Chris Arnold can be reached at carnold@npr.org or contacted through encrypted communications on Signal at ChrisArnold.07. NPR's Emily Feng is at efeng@npr.org and at emilyzfeng.96 on Signal.
NPR's Andrea Hsu contributed to this report.
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