A federal judge made a ruling to rehire thousands of federal employees that were fired after the Trump administration made harsh cuts to reduce the size of the federal government. Now the Trump administration has issued an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the rehires. During the flurry of executive orders Trump signed at the beginning of his current term, many federal employees who were still in their probationary period were terminated. The executive orders target programs and agencies that had anything to do with diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility, among other things Trump and his appointees deemed unnecessary like the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Education. At the time of writing, the administration has announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be cutting 20,000 full-time jobs from several departments under the HHS umbrella including the FDA, CDC, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Amidst the initial round of layoffs, two judges found legal issues with the way they were handled, and Judge William Alsup ruled that the terminations were not directed correctly by the Office of Personal Management (OPM). A coalition of labor unions filed a lawsuit saying that their loss of employees would affect them greatly, causing Alsup to order rehiring at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior, and the Treasury. Alsup believes that the firing of the probationary employees was an attempt to get around the rules as probationary employees have less legal protections than others do. The appeal from the Trump administration argues that the judge does not have the power to rehire more than 16,000 probationary employees and that the lawsuit from the labor unions did not prove the OPM mishandled the terminations. It also is claiming that there is an “interbranch power grab” happening and that the Supreme Court is the only entity to stop it. This is an interesting claim seeing as how Trump created an entire department, the DOGE (Department of Governmental Efficiency), and made the leader someone who has absolutely no history in government (and has been seen doing a Nazi salute on live television). It is disturbing to see this administration making wild, unconstitutional, sweeping acts that affect so many and are retaliating on anyone trying to stop them. Attorney Norm Eisen, who is representing the labor unions who are suing, says “Our coalition remains committed to ensuring that justice prevails for every affected probationary worker.” This is definitely not a time to be complacent or silent about the injustices you see.
