Trump administration ordered to retract 'sham' rationale for firing workers

By Daniel Wiessner

April 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered the Trump administration to put in writing that thousands of federal workers were not fired over their performance as agencies had claimed in terminating them en masse.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco late Friday said claims by six agencies that nearly 17,000 probationary workers were fired in February because of their individual performance was "a total sham" that could hobble their careers.

Alsup in March had ordered the agencies to reinstate the workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court paused that ruling earlier this month. On Friday he declined a request by a group of unions and the state of Washington to order reinstatement a second time.

The judge ordered the agencies to provide workers with written statements by May 8 stating that their terminations were not based on performance or fitness but were made as part of a government-wide mass termination.

Probationary employees typically have less than one year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal employees, and are easier to fire than career civil servants.

The White House and the office of Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The lead plaintiff in the case is the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 federal workers. AFGE President Everett Kelley in a statement praised the ruling for "dismantling the false narrative that these employees were terminated for poor performance when no such thing occurred."

The mass firings were part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump, a Republican, and billionaire Elon Musk to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy and slash government spending, which has invited a series of legal challenges.

The plaintiffs in the case before Alsup claim that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal civilian workforce, unlawfully directed firings by agencies and falsely stated that they were for performance reasons.

Alsup, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, had found in March that OPM improperly ordered the firings. He ruled on behalf of nonprofit groups that had also sued, but did not address claims by the unions and Washington at the time.

The Supreme Court on April 8 put Alsup's ruling on hold pending further litigation, saying the nonprofits likely lacked standing to sue. The order applies to the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs departments.

A judge in Maryland in March had separately ordered 18 agencies — including five of the six subject to Alsup's order — to reinstate about 25,000 probationary employees. That ruling has been put on hold by an appeals court.

Alsup on Friday said there was now much less need for an order reinstating the workers because OPM in response to his March ruling had told agencies that it was not requiring them to fire any employees.

But he said the workers' records should not reflect that their firings had anything to do with their performance.

"Countless high-performing employees ... were terminated through a lie," Alsup wrote. "The stain created by OPM’s pretense will follow each employee through their careers and will limit their professional opportunities."

The judge said the order does not prohibit the agencies from terminating employees "so long as the agency makes that decision wholly on its own."

The case is American Federation of Government Employees v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 25-cv-1780.

For the plaintiffs: Danielle Leonard and Stacey Leyton of Altshuler Berzon

For the government: Kelsey Helland of the U.S. Department of Justice

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