Topline
A federal appeals court ruled against the Trump administration Monday over thousands of fired civil servants, leaving a lower court order in place that directs the Trump administration to rehire workers at six key federal agencies.
President Donald Trump answers reporters’ questions at the White House on March 12.
Key Facts
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order issued last week by Judge William Alsup, who ruled the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary employees was unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to rehire the affected staffers.
The ruling affects all probationary employees—meaning employees who were hired more recently, generally within the past year—who were terminated on February 13 and February 14 from six federal agencies: the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs.
Alsup also extended a previous order issued in February, which rescinded the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary officials at the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service (all units of the Department of Interior), as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and Small Business Administration.
The Trump administration argued to the appeals court that throwing out Alsup’s order would maintain the “status quo” as the litigation moved forward—by keeping the administration’s mass firings in place—but the panel of appeals judges ruled 2-1 that siding with the government would instead “disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head.”
The lawsuit was brought by labor unions representing federal workers against the Office of Personnel Management, with the plaintiffs taking issue with mass memos OPM sent out to probationary workers across the federal government, claiming they are being terminated for “performance reasons”—even for employees who received favorable performance reviews.
Alsup ruled that was unlawful, as OPM does not have the authority to fire other agencies’ workers itself, rather than the specific agencies employing the workers.
Tangent
In addition to Alsup’s case, a different federal judge in Maryland issued an order Thursday that also ruled against the Trump administration’s firings of probationary employees. Judge James Bredar directed the Trump administration to either rehire employees at the following agencies or place them on administrative leave: Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development. The court or higher appeals courts could still issue further rulings in the case, and Bredar’s order is now in place for two weeks, or until a further order is issued in the case.
Which Specific Workers Will Be Rehired?
Alsup has directed the Trump administration to provide a list with all the terminated employees and how the Trump administration has taken steps with the court order to rehire them, which is due to the court by Thursday. A Business Insider analysis of public data on probationary employees suggests the largest share of probationary employees are in the Department of Veterans Affairs and as civilian workers in the military, particularly the Department of the Army.
How Many Workers Are Affected By The Court’s Ruling?
Approximately 24,000 workers will be rehired as a result of Alsup’s ruling, according to figures compiled by specialist publication Government Executive. It’s unclear how many probationary workers have been fired in total, though Business Insider’s analysis found there were approximately 56,000 probationary workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and more than 70,000 in the Department of Defense and various branches of the military as of May 2024.
What To Watch For
The litigation is still moving forward, so it’s still possible that a future court ruling could approve the Trump administration’s firings, or the court could further expand its order to order the rehiring of more employees.
What Are Probationary Employees?
Probationary employees typically have less than a year of service in their government roles, though depending on the agency and role, that amount of time could be two years instead. Affected employees include both newcomers to the federal government and people who have worked for the government for a long time, but have only recently moved to a new job. There were more than 200,000 employees with less than a year of service as of May 2024, according to data from OPM. It’s unclear how many were affected by the mass terminations, however, as the Trump administration said many employees, such as those in “mission-critical” roles, were exempt from the firings.
Key Background
The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have drawn widespread criticism for their broad cuts to the federal workforce in the months since Trump’s inauguration. The administration has carried out mass layoffs across the federal government, along with buyout offers to federal staffers in an attempt to get employees to quit voluntarily. OPM also sent out controversial emails to federal workers directing them to explain what they accomplished at work the previous week, with Musk saying those who didn’t respond would be terminated—though it’s unclear any actually were, after many agencies opposed the directive. The staff reductions are part of a broader goal by Musk and DOGE to eliminate purported government waste, and are in line with conservative goals—outlined in the controversial Project 2025—to replace nonpartisan civil servants with political appointees. The lawsuit at the heart of Alsup’s ruling is one of a number of cases that have been filed challenging the administration’s staff cuts in court, with litigation brought both by individual workers and groups challenging mass job cuts. Other judges have ruled more favorably for the Trump administration, with courts upholding the Trump administration placing workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave, firing CIA employees in roles related to diversity, equity and inclusion, upholding the buyout for federal workers and allowing the Trump administration to fire former Office of Special Counsel head Hampton Dellinger.
Further Reading
