Unions and nonprofit groups challenging the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers are pushing for a U.S. District Judge to take action against government agencies. They claim these agencies are defying a court order to reinstate thousands of workers by placing them on paid leave instead of returning them to their jobs.
The plaintiffs in the case, filed in a San Francisco federal court, are asking Judge William Alsup to order six federal agencies to immediately put the fired employees back to work. They also want the judge to consider imposing financial penalties for each day the agencies fail to comply.
On March 13, Judge Alsup ordered the reinstatement of more than 17,000 probationary employees while the case continues. These workers, who generally have less than a year of service, include both new hires and some long-term federal employees.
The agencies involved claim they are working to reinstate all fired employees, but many are being placed on paid administrative leave as a temporary measure. The Treasury Department, however, has argued that many of these employees will ultimately be laid off anyway, making their reinstatement unnecessary.
In a court filing on March 17, Judge Alsup stated that placing employees on paid leave did not fulfill his order. He noted that the aim of his preliminary injunction was to restore the services provided by these workers, which paid leave does not accomplish.
The plaintiffs argue that some agencies are using paid leave as a loophole to avoid fully reinstating the employees, while others suggest that administrative leave is just a temporary step toward a future, unspecified reinstatement. They also claimed that the agencies failed to notify employees that their firings were unlawful, as per the judge’s instructions.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Monday, the Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to block Judge Alsup’s order while it seeks to overturn the decision. The order currently applies to the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs departments.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the state of Washington, contend that the mass firings were orchestrated by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which they argue lacked the authority to order such terminations. Judge Alsup agreed, ruling that OPM had no power to direct firings and that the six agencies had improperly followed OPM’s directive.
On the same day, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a separate ruling in a case involving Washington, D.C., and 19 states, ordering 18 agencies to reinstate nearly 25,000 probationary workers. The San Francisco case includes five of the agencies named in the Baltimore case, along with the Defense Department.
Last week, a U.S. appeals court in Virginia declined to pause the Baltimore ruling while it is appealed. The Baltimore judge suggested in a hearing on Wednesday that he may limit the scope of his order to the states involved in the lawsuit.
The case is American Federation of Government Employees v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 25-cv-1780.
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