Judge Orders Trump Administration to Reinstate Thousands of Fired Workers
Decision affects probationary workers at six federal agencies, including Treasury, Defense and Energy
March 13, 2025
Key Points
The Education Department, with around 4,500 employees as of last year, is the smallest cabinet-level agency. Polls show most Americans oppose eliminating the department.
A federal judge has ordered six federal agencies to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were fired last month, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to rapidly scale back the size of the federal workforce.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in California said Thursday that probationary workers from the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Interior, Treasury, Defense and Veterans Affairs should be offered their jobs back immediately, describing the process by which they had been terminated as a “sham” and “unlawful”.
The order didn’t extend to other agencies affected by the firings, although Alsup didn’t rule out potentially expanding that in the future.
The American Federation of Government Employees brought the lawsuit on behalf of tens of thousands of probationary employees who, it said, were fired last month at the direction of the Office of Personnel Management.
Barring those deemed “mission critical” for the agency, probationary workers—those in their jobs for less than a year, or less than two years for “excepted service”— were sent an email stating that they were being let go for performance-related reasons, AFGE said in its lawsuit.
More than 200,000 employees, or nearly 10% of the civilian federal workforce, have been on the job for a year or less at the time, according to Office of Personnel Management data. Such a designation can also include recently promoted employees.
The Justice Department said that the decision to terminate the workers had been lawfully made by each agency’s leaders.
Alsup, a nominee of former President Bill Clinton, said in remarks delivered from the bench that he wasn’t questioning the government’s authority to lay off workers. But it must be done through the proper legal procedures, he said.
“It’s a sad day when the federal government would fire a good employee and say it’s based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said. He pointed to employees who were told they were fired for cause despite stellar performance reviews. “That should not be done in our country,” he said. “It was a sham to avoid statutory requirements.”
Alsup also criticized the Justice Department for what he characterized as attempts to stonewall the challengers in their attempts to gather more details about the firings, including attempts to depose acting OPM Director Charles Ezell.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration “will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”
“A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch,” she said. “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.”
The Trump administration has been cutting staff across federal agencies, mainly led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Evercore ISI estimates that DOGE’s efforts will directly or indirectly result in nearly 500,000 fewer jobs.
In addition to firing probationary workers, the Trump administration has also offered a voluntary resignation program and instructed agencies to draw up plans to reduce staff even further through what is known as a reduction in force process. Officials have also tried to wind down work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development and lay off many staff.
Those efforts have drawn a number of legal challenges. The latest came Thursday, in a lawsuit from a coalition of 20 states on Thursday over plans to eliminate nearly half of the staff of the Education Department.
The group led by Democratic attorneys general in states including Arizona, California, Colorado, New York and Wisconsin said in the lawsuit in Massachusetts that the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the agency were unconstitutional. The Education Department cuts would devastate education programs across the U.S. and would leave the agency unable to carry out basic duties, the lawsuit added.
“Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation, especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal.”
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American public to return education authority to the states,” said Madi Biedermann, spokeswoman for the Education Department.
Plans to reduce the Department of Education’s workforce were implemented in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws, Biedermann said. No employees working on federal student aid, student-loan servicing or discretionary grants programs were affected and civil-rights investigations will continue, she said.
The Education Department said Tuesday it was cutting its workforce by about 1,950 staff positions in total, including 1,315 federal workers. Trump is expected to issue an executive order seeking to dismantle the federal agency.
The order is expected to call for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to help facilitate the closure of the agency, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The White House hasn’t yet said when the president will sign the order.
A president, however, cannot unilaterally eliminate a federal agency that has been established by Congress. Congress would need to approve the measure.
During the Biden administration, conservatives targeted the agency over student-loan forgiveness and the expansion of antidiscrimination rules for transgender students. Trump promised on the campaign trail to eliminate the department.
The Education Department, with around 4,500 employees as of last year, is the smallest cabinet-level agency. Polls show most Americans oppose eliminating the department.
Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com and Erin Mulvaney at erin.mulvaney@wsj.com
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Appeared in the March 14, 2025, print edition as 'Agencies Ordered To Rehire Thousands Of Workers'.
A federal judge has ordered six federal agencies to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were fired last month, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to rapidly scale back the size of the federal workforce.
The Trump administration has encountered a number of legal challenges in its push to slash the government’s size and spending, including a lawsuit from a coalition of 20 states over plans to eliminate nearly half of the staff of the Education Department.