- A judge ruled OPM must retract memos calling for mass layoffs of probationary employees.
- The ruling follows a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s federal workforce reduction.
- Charles Ezell, Acting Director of OPM, and DOGE employees could be ordered to testify in court.
A federal judge in California said on Thursday that the US Office of Personnel Management must withdraw memos calling for other federal agencies to terminate probationary employees en masse, stating that the OPM exceeded its legal authority.
US District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said that except for its own employees, “OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe,” to direct another federal agency to fire their workers, and that OPM must notify other agencies that it did not have the power to issue such a directive.
“All efforts by OPM to enforce it are invalid, pending further order of the court,” he added.
The OPM did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
The order issued by Alsup comes in response to a lawsuit filed last week by a coalition of five labor unions and five nonprofit organizations challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce. The lawsuit is just one of several pushing back against the Trump administration’s stance that the federal workforce is bloated and inefficient.
Plaintiffs argued that OPM had no legal authority to terminate probationary employees, generally meaning those with less than a year on the job, and that the firings were based on false claims of poor performance.
Government attorneys said in court that OPM did not mandate the firings but merely advised agencies to assess whether probationary employees met performance standards. They argued that these employees are not entitled to guaranteed employment and that federal agencies should prioritize retaining only top-performing and mission-critical staff.
Alsap could summon Charles Ezell, Acting Director of OPM, to testify in court under oath in March about his communications to agencies regarding terminating employees. DOGE office-affiliated employees can also be subpoenaed to court.
“I can’t order what I’m about to say because we don’t have the parties in front of me to give relief. But I’m going to count on the government to do the right thing and to go a little bit further than I have ordered,” said Alsap shortly before adjourning the court, “and to let some of these agencies know what I have ruled because I would hate for probationary employees to lose their job and for the government to be compromised.”
“This ruling by Judge Alsup is an important initial victory for patriotic Americans across this country who were illegally fired from their jobs by an agency that had no authority to do so,” said Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees. “These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities, only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work.”
