Ruling orders Office of Personnel Management to reverse directives that led to thousands of layoffs.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the US government to reverse mass firings that are part of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s plan to reduce the government workforce.
The order directs the Office of Personnel Management to reverse directives sent to several federal agencies that led to thousands of layoffs.
According to the Washington Post, US District Judge William Alsop said that “the office has no authority under any law in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency.”
“Congress has given agencies the power to hire and fire themselves. For example, the Department of Defense has the legal authority to hire and fire.”
The decision is the latest legal setback for Trump’s efforts to undermine the US government.
It comes days after another West Coast district judge blocked his ban on refugees and weeks after a court blocked his executive order to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
Thursday’s ruling comes after unions and advocacy groups sued over what they said were illegal orders that federal agencies fire all probationary employees.
A federal worker is considered a probationary employee in their first or second year on the job, even if they were promoted from a lower grade.
The ruling affected tens of thousands of people.
OPM, the federal agency charged with enforcing this nation’s employment laws, has in one fell swoop committed the largest employment fraud in this nation’s history according to a plaintiff’s legal filing, according to the Post.
OPM lacks the constitutional, statutory or regulatory power to order other federal agencies to terminate employees whom Congress authorized those agencies to employ and manage the lawyers said.
