A federal judge in California has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing recently hired probationary federal workers.
The order prevents the Trump administration from instructing departments and agencies to begin dismissing the employees.
The judge argues that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lacks the power to fire employees.
The move came during a court hearing over a lawsuit challenging OPM’s mass terminations.
The lawsuit was filed by labor unions and other groups.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the mass terminations violate the Administrative Procedure Act requirements and congressional laws that deal with agency hiring and firing practices.
The judge ruled that OPM lacks the power to fire workers, including probationary employees who may have less than a year of civil service on the job.
Last week, a federal judge declined to stop the Trump administration from firing federal workers and conducting mass layoffs.
The ruling allowed the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to remain on track with its mission of finding and slashing wasteful and fraudulent government spending.
In one of the cases, Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper shot down a request from several labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
The unions had requested the court issue a pause on the mass firings of federal workers.
NTEU and four other labor unions representing the federal employees filed a complaint on February 12.
The complaint was challenging the firing of probationary employees and the deferred resignation program.
Under the resignation program, federal employees were presented with a fork in the road.
It meant they could either return to office or they could resign from their positions and continue to get paid through September.
The deadline to decide was originally February 6.
However, the date was ultimately deferred to Feb. 12, then subsequently closed that day.
The unions moved for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the firing of probationary employees across all federal agencies and furtherance of the resignation program on Feb. 14.
The next day, it was sent to Cooper’s court.
Cooper denied the request, though, saying the court lacks jurisdiction over the unions’ claims.
Instead, Cooper ruled the unions must pursue their challenges through the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.
The statute provides for administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Meanwhile, another federal judge ordered Trump administration officials involved with DOGE to testify in a legal dispute that seeks to block Musk’s team from accessing sensitive government databases.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Bates said officials from the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other agencies linked to the DOGE will sit for questioning under oath by lawyers for labor unions and other groups.
The group is suing to block DOGE’s efforts to gut federal bureaucracy and eliminate wasteful spending.
The groups claim that some DOGE officials and allies have already been granted access to sensitive databases and that the privacy concerns of federal workers are being ignored.
Judge Bates had earlier refused to block DOGE access entirely.
Bates limited the depositions to eight hours, but no specific timeline was announced.
Names of those who will be asked to testify were not revealed.
“It would be strange to permit defendants to submit evidence that addresses critical factual issues and proceed to rule on a preliminary injunction motion without permitting plaintiffs to explore those factual issues through very limited discovery,” the judge wrote.
Bates’ order also permits a limited set of written questions to be submitted to the agencies targeted by the lawsuit.
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