A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that the Office of Personnel Management—an agency taken over by lieutenants of billionaire Elon Musk—violated the law earlier this month when it ordered the firing of thousands of probationary employees across the government.
OPM "does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency," said Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a Clinton appointee, siding with a coalition of labor unions and advocacy groups that sued the federal agency.
Alsup also castigated OPM for falsely claiming the terminations it ordered were performance-based. The agency's order was "illegal" and "should be stopped and rescinded," said Alsup.
"That's just not right in our country, is it, that we would run our agencies with lies like that and stain somebody's record for the rest of their life?" the judge said. "Who's going to want to work in a government that would do that?"
It was unclear, however, whether Alsup's ruling would do much to stem the Trump administration's sweeping purge of the federal workforce, as it was limited to agencies directly involved in the case. It was also not clear that the ruling would result in fired probationary employees getting their jobs back.
According toBloomberg Law, "the judge listed the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Science Foundation among the agencies that are barred from engaging in layoffs ordered by OPM."
Politiconoted that "Alsup stopped short of ordering the agencies to reinstate the fired workers or to halt looming firing," saying he "doesn't currently have the authority to do that."
"We will continue to move this case forward with our partners until federal workers are protected against these baseless terminations."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said in a statement Thursday that "we know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite."
"While they work to protect public health and safety, federal workers have faced constant harassment from unelected billionaires and anti-union extremists whose only goal is to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people," said Saunders. "We will continue to move this case forward with our partners until federal workers are protected against these baseless terminations."
Shortly before Alsup's ruling, the Trump administration fired hundreds of probationary employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including staffers tasked with maintaining key radar systems and creating weather forecasts.
More broadly, the Trump administration and Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency are aiming to gut the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and other key federal bodies as part of their far-right ideological project.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Thursday that Alsup's ruling underscores the administration's "disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work."
"Our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all," Kelley added.
