Trump administration unlawfully directed mass worker terminations, judge rules

Source: Reuters

September 13, 2025 9:02 AM EDT Updated 3 hours ago


Sept 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration had unlawfully directed the firing of thousands of federal workers, but he did not order their reinstatement, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco stuck by his preliminary conclusion in the case that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in February unlawfully ordered numerous agencies to fire probationary employees en masse.

Unions, nonprofits and Washington state had sued after Trump's administration moved to fire roughly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have less than a year of service, though some are longtime workers in new jobs.

Alsup said ordinarily he would "set aside OPM's unlawful directive and unwind its consequences, returning the parties to the ex ante status quo, and as a consequence, probationers to their posts." "But the Supreme Court has made clear enough by way of its emergency docket that it will overrule judicially granted relief respecting hirings and firings within the executive, not just in this case but in others," Alsup wrote.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-unlawfully-directed-mass-worker-terminations-judge-rules-2025-09-13/