"Does not have any authority whatsoever": Judge rules Trump admin's mass firings likely illegal

A federal judge weighed in on the Trump administration’s mass firings of probationary employees across the federal government, ruling on Thursday that the actions to let go of thousands of federal workers were likely illegal.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted temporary relief to a group of labor organizations representing federal workers, ordering the Office of Personnel Management to inform agencies that it lacks the authority to fire probationary employees.

“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe,” Alsup said in court, per The Associated Press. “Probationary employees are the lifeblood of our government.”

Probationary employees, federal workers with less than a year in their posts, are an early target of DOGE’s plan to slash the federal workforce. OPM ordered federal agencies to axe probationary workers earlier this month, as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk derided the size of the national bureaucracy.

Many of the roughly 200,000 probationary workers across the government were let go via a template email from OPM based on “performance.”

The layoffs targeted workers inside the Department of Defense, the National Parks Service, the National Weather Service and other agencies.

Union leaders celebrated the ruling, though Alsup suggested the labor organizations likely lacked standing in the case, per the AP.

“We know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement. “While they work to protect public health and safety, federal workers have faced constant harassment from unelected billionaires and anti-union extremists whose only goal is to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people.”

The Clinton appointee set an evidentiary hearing for March 13.