Federal judges in California and Maryland on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to reinstate thousands of probationary federal workers who lost their jobs as part of mass layoffs carried out across 19 agencies.
These rulings were the most significant blow yet to Trump’s efforts, alongside his top advisor Elon Musk, to drastically reduce the federal bureaucracy.
Federal agencies face a deadline to submit plans for a second round of layoffs and budget cuts, reports the news agency “Reuters.”
Baltimore District Judge James Bredar agreed with 20 states led by Democrats that 18 of the agencies which had recently mass-fired probationary workers had violated regulations governing the dismissal of federal employees.
Judge Bredar’s order to reinstate the workers applies, among others, to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Other agencies included in Judge Bredar’s ruling are the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury, and several other agencies.
Judge Bredar’s decision came just hours after another judge, William Alsup, during a hearing in San Francisco, ordered the reinstatement of probationary workers who were fired from six agencies, including the Department of Defense.
