A federal judge in Baltimore suggested he may order the Trump administration to rehire thousands of probationary federal workers who were laid off, NBC News reported.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has fired roughly 200,000 of these workers, who due to their probationary status have fewer protections than most federal employees. Some of them are under probationary status because they are new hires, but others have worked in the government for years or decades, and are probationary because they were transferred to a new department or even promoted for meritorious service. Termination notices cited unspecified "performance" issues with the affected employees, even though many had received commendations in their most recent performance reviews.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general asked for an order to restore these workers' status, arguing the administration broke the law by ordering a "reduction in force" without 60 days notice and career transition services to affected employees — and the violation of procedure is now straining these states' unemployment systems.
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Senior U.S. District Judge James Bredar, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, appeared receptive to their argument.
"This case isn't about whether or not the government can terminate people. It’s about if they decide to terminate people, how they must do it," said Bredar at a hearing this week. He quoted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's infamous "move fast and break things" as the mentality for how tech billionaire Elon Musk is trying to restructure the federal workforce, and warned, “Move fast, fine. Break things? If that involves breaking the law, then that becomes problematic.”
President Donald Trump appears, per some legal experts, to have accepted the case won't go his way, as he has decided not to let his Office of Personnel Management chief testify.
