A federal judge on Thursday, March 13, 2025, ordered the Trump administration to reinstate tens of thousands of fired federal employees across six agencies, calling their terminations “unlawful.”

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the Trump administration must immediately reinstate all of the probationary employees it fired from the departments of Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Veterans Affairs.

The mass firings of federal workers were a “sham” effort by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — the human resources agency of the federal government — to skirt laws in order to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce, Judge Alsup said.

“The court finds that Office of Personnel Management did direct all agencies to terminate probationary employees with the exception of mission critical employees,” Alsup said, rejecting claims by the Justice Department that OPM was simply offering “guidance” to agencies to carry out firings.

The judge may extend his order at a later time to cover even more fired probationary employees from other federal agencies. Probationary employees are people who generally have had their current jobs for a year or less.

Alsup criticized the administration’s tactics, finding that many employees had received positive performance reviews just months before being terminated. The judge described the government’s stated reason of “performance” for the firings as a “gimmick to avoid the Reductions in Force Act,” calling it a deliberate attempt to “end-run federal law.”

Everett Kelley of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, hailed the judge’s decision.

“AFGE is pleased with Judge Alsup’s order to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public,” Kelley said in a statement. “AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill also celebrated the news, saying essential federal workers like nuclear researchers, park rangers and VA health care experts can now get back to work.

“This is a win for our democracy, the rule of law, and for the American people who are better served by having these federal workers on the job,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a statement.

The White House has already signaled it will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch. The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch — singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President’s agenda,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves,” she added. “The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order.”

The judge made clear that his decision is based on the fact that individual agencies, not OPM, have the authority to carry out “reductions in force” and that there are lawful ways to do so. Federal agencies are in the process of finalizing their plans, to submit to OPM, for cutting employees, as directed by President Donald Trump.

During the hearing, Judge Alsup expressed frustration with the government’s refusal to provide information and testimony. He criticized the administration for not making OPM’s acting director available to testify about the decision to fire the probationary employees, describing it as “stonewalling” efforts to uncover the truth.

The lawsuit was filed by a coalition including major federal employee unions, environmental groups, small business advocates, and veteran organizations. They argued that the mass firings would have far-reaching harmful impacts on critical government services and public lands.

The ruling comes as the Trump administration faces numerous legal challenges to its efforts to downsize the federal workforce, which has been a key priority since taking office in January.

More than 5,000 probationary employees who were fired from the Department of Agriculture got their jobs back last week, after a government employee oversight board found they were illegally terminated. The decision by that panel, the Merit Systems Protection Board, came after it had restored the jobs of six federal employees at other agencies who had been similarly fired by the Trump administration.

Both decisions came down after Alsup ruled earlier this month that OPM had no authority to direct federal agencies to fire their employees — something it had been doing for weeks — and that its actions likely were illegal. That ruling led to OPM abruptly walking back its directive to agencies to fire people, and instead contorting its previous guidance to suggest it had been up to agencies all along to fire people.

In several instances, the administration has scrambled to rehire federal employees it had just fired — not because of a court order, but because it turns out experts are needed on things like nuclear weapons, bird flu and park management.

Last week, more than 180 probationary employees who were fired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were reinstated. In an email with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately,” these dozens of previously fired CDC workers were told they could return to work “after further review and consideration.”

“We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused,” read the email.

The judge has ordered the affected agencies to immediately offer job reinstatement to the terminated employees and report back on their compliance. This case is one of multiple lawsuits challenging the mass firings, with another judge in Maryland also appearing skeptical of the Trump administration’s actions.