Trump Agencies’ Plan for Fired Workers Faces Judicial Pushback

The Trump administration’s placement of thousands of federal workers on leave drew mixed reactions this week from judges who had ordered those employees back in their jobs after they were initially fired.

A San Francisco judge expressed concern that agencies may be failing to comply with his order to rehire probationary workers at six agencies while a legal fight is pending. A Baltimore judge, meanwhile, indicated he was satisfied with the government’s efforts to meet a 14-day deadline to reinstate employees across more than 20 agencies, even as most of those workers have been put on paid leave.

The varying judicial feedback came as federal appeals courts weigh the US Justice Department’s requests to pause both judges’ decisions. The court fights stem from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency push to curb government spending. DOGE, an office within the White House, has burrowed into federal agencies where it has led staff cut efforts and canceled contracts.

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On Tuesday, government lawyers disputed that the administration was trying to “skirt” an order by US District Judge William Alsup in the California case. Administrative leave was “merely a first part of a series of steps to reinstate probationary employees,” DOJ lawyers wrote.

Almost 25,000 federal workers with probationary status were fired from the 21 agencies covered by the reinstatement order in Maryland, according to a Monday night court filing by the government. The probationary status applied to employees in their positions less than one or two years, depending on the role. 

In a series of declarations, officials who handle personnel matters at each of the agencies wrote that immediately restoring the fired employees to “full duty status” would “impose substantial burdens” on those offices and cause “significant confusion” and “turmoil” for the employees. 

Earlier on Tuesday, US District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore wrote that the government’s representations showed “meaningful progress towards compliance” with his order, which is set to expire March 27. The Democratic state attorneys general who brought the case are urging Bredar to adopt a longer-term injunction.

A spokesperson for the Maryland attorney general’s office, which is leading the states in the case, didn’t immediately respond a request for comment.

In San Francisco, Alsup last week issued a preliminary injunction requiring the administration to rehire probationary employees at six agencies: the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. Only the Defense Department wasn’t also covered by Bredar’s order in Maryland.

On Monday night, Alsup ordered the US Justice Department to explain what was going on based on news reports that probationary workers were being rehired and then placed on administrative leave “en masse.”

“This is not allowed by the preliminary injunction,” Alsup wrote, “for it would not restore the services the preliminary injunction intends to restore.”

Lawyers for the challengers in the California case didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the government’s response to Alsup on Tuesday. The judge said they could weigh in on the compliance issue by March 20. He also noted that the government’s Tuesday submission didn’t include information about the situation at the Defense Department, and ordered another filing on that.

Earlier this week, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by the Justice Department to immediately pause Alsup’s injunction while it considers whether to halt it longer-term. The Fourth Circuit hasn’t ruled on a similar request by the government in the Maryland case.

The cases are American Federation of Government Employees AFL-CIO v. Office of Personnel Management, 25-cv-1780, US District Court, Northern District of California and Maryland v. Department of Agriculture, 25-cv-748, US District Court, District of Maryland .

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