Judge blocks Trump’s mass firing plan

A little more than two weeks ago, Trump had given the order to dramatically scale back government employment.

Part of that order was the mass firing of probationary employees, a move that is now being challenged in court.

The Order

In early February, Trump signed an executive order to freeze current hiring, and curtail future hiring when the evaluations were done on the freeze lifted.

Trump had also asked Musk to start to come up with recommendations for cuts. As part of the order, Trump had also ordered all probationary workers to be terminated immediately.

Trump offered a massive buyout to government employees, offering them about eight months pay to turn in their resignations.

While thousands of people took the offer, it was nowhere near what Trump needed to hit his downsizing goal.

Judge Halts Firing Order

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Bill Clinton appointee, just shredded Trump’s order, at least for the time being.

In halting the firings, Alsup wrote, “(The) Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency. The agencies could thumb their nose at OPM if they wanted to.”

Roughly 200,000 employees would have been impacted by Trump’s order, but everything is now on hold.

To be clear, Alsup’s order is only temporary, but I would not expect him to change his mind, considering he was appointed by a Democrat. I have been able to predict the outcomes of about 95% of these cases simply by looking at who appointed the judge. Ironically, the only time I have been wrong, save one case, is when a conservative judge crossed over.

OPM Denial

Amid all these legal battles, the OPM came out to pushback against the claim that it had ordered mass firings.

DOJ attorneys, on behalf of the OPM, stated, “OPM did not direct agencies to terminate probationary employees, based either on performance or misconduct.” That, however, does not match the email chains that have been made public.

For instance, in one memo, the OPM wrote, "We have asked that you separate probationary employees that you have not identified as mission-critical no later than end of day Monday, 2/17. We have attached a template letter. The separation date should be as soon as possible that is consistent with applicable agency policies."

I don’t understand why the OPM would deny this, especially since it stands to reason the OPM should have the authority to dismiss employees. This issue is far from settled, as it will play out in the lower courts, eventually winding up before the Supreme Court, where we will get a final verdict.