US judge questions his power to reinstate federal workers nationwide

By Blake Brittain and Daniel Wiessner

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, March 26 (Reuters) - A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to reinstate nearly 25,000 fired government employees said on Wednesday that he could narrow his ruling to workers based in Washington, D.C., and the 19 mostly Democratic-led states that sued over the mass firings.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar during a hearing in Baltimore, Maryland, said he was concerned that he lacked the power to issue an order affecting states that are not involved in the lawsuit.

"This court has great reluctance to issue a national injunction," Bredar told a lawyer from the Maryland Attorney General's Office. "That doesn't mean the court won't issue one in this case — you're going to have to show me it's essential for remedying any harms that your clients are specifically experiencing."

Bredar acknowledged that nationwide injunctions have become increasingly controversial and that judges' powers to issue them are unsettled. The Trump administration and other Republican officials have said that nationwide orders improperly limit the president's powers.

Bredar extended his March 13 temporary restraining order, which was set to expire on Thursday, until April 1 to give him time to rule on the states' request to block the mass firings of probationary employees pending the outcome of the lawsuit. Probationary workers typically have less than a year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal employees.

PROPER SCOPE

Bredar asked both sides to file briefs on the proper scope of an injunction by Thursday morning.

The lawyer representing Maryland and the other states, Virginia Williamson, told Bredar that a nationwide injunction was necessary to protect the states that sued from the fallout of mass firings, including decreased tax revenue and a spike in unemployment claims and demand for social services. She noted that some federal employees live and work in different states.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Eric Hamilton argued that the firings did not amount to illegal layoffs, but said any injunction should be limited to the plaintiff states.

The White House, the Justice Department and the office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, which is leading the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bredar in his March 13 decision had ordered agencies to reinstate about 24,500 fired workers pending further litigation, saying the mass firings appeared to violate regulations governing layoffs of federal employees.

A U.S. appeals court last week declined to pause his ruling, but a Trump-appointed judge on the court's panel criticized the nationwide scope of the order.

The 18 agencies involved in the case include the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department.

The mass firings of probationary workers were the first step in broader efforts by Trump and top adviser Elon Musk to drastically shrink the federal workforce and slash government spending. Most agencies have said they fired a few hundred probationary workers, but others terminated thousands.

In filings on Tuesday, the agencies said they had contacted virtually all fired workers and most agreed to come back, though a few hundred chose to resign or took other jobs. Most of the reinstated workers have been placed on paid leave, they said, and some agencies are working to restore workers to full duty.

The states in their lawsuit claim the mass firings were improper because agencies failed to follow a federal regulation requiring them to give state and local governments 60 days' notice in advance of mass layoffs.

Bredar on Wednesday gave no indication that he had changed his mind about the mass firings being unlawful. And he rejected claims by Hamilton that courts cannot order federal agencies to reinstate fired employees.

"I'm not going to casually conclude that Congress set up this whole statutory process designed to protect states from the consequences of large federal layoffs, and then just casually said 'oh, but if the federal government ... disobeys the law, there's nothing that the states can do about it,'" he said.

Hours before Bredar issued his March 13 ruling, a judge in San Francisco separately ordered that probationary workers at six agencies be reinstated, but on different legal grounds. That case involves five of the agencies subject to Bredar's ruling and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Trump administration has appealed that decision and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause it pending the outcome of the case.

The case is Maryland v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 25-cv-748.

For the states: Virginia Williamson of the Maryland Attorney General's Office

For the agencies: Eric Hamilton, Steven Chasin and Beatrice Thomas of the U.S. Department of Justice

Read more:

US judges order Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired workers

Trump administration reinstating almost 25,000 fired workers after court order

Trump takes challenge to judge's federal worker rehiring order to Supreme Court

US judge halts Trump administration's calls for mass firings at agencies

Democrat-led states join legal fight over Trump's mass firings of federal workers

Trump poised to launch new round of layoffs despite setbacks in court

US agencies face Thursday deadline to submit mass layoff plans

US House Speaker Johnson says Congress can 'eliminate' district courts