A federal judge ruled Thursday night that thousands of federal employees dismissed under the Trump administration must be temporarily reinstated.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order against multiple federal agencies, departments, and their leadership, which had terminated workers as part of a workforce reduction initiative.
“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice. It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons,” Bredar stated in his ruling.
“On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively,” he added.
Earlier that day, a separate federal judge in California directed several federal departments, including Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Treasury, to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who had been terminated the previous month. The Justice Department responded by filing a notice of appeal in that case.
Bredar’s order specifically applies to 12 federal departments that dismissed probationary workers. These include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.
Additionally, the ruling covers recently terminated probationary workers at several federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the General Services Administration, and the Small Business Administration.
Bredar set a deadline of March 17 at 1 p.m. ET for these agencies to reinstate the affected employees.
The judge acknowledged the scale of his ruling, considering the government had dismissed approximately 200,000 probationary employees—workers who were either newly hired or had recently changed positions—since Donald Trump assumed office in January.
“The Court is not blind to the practical reality that the relief being ordered today will have far-reaching impacts on the federal workforce and will require the Government to expend considerable resources in an effort to undo the [reductions in force] that have been put into place,” Bredar noted.
“When, as is likely the case here, the Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task,” he continued.
A coalition of Democratic attorneys general had initiated the lawsuit, seeking a temporary restraining order that would reinstate the terminated employees. They argued that the Trump administration had disregarded established protocols in executing mass terminations of federal workers.
However, Bredar ruled that certain federal entities, including the Defense Department, the Office of Personnel Management, and the National Archives, would not be subject to his order. He cited “insufficient evidence” that a workforce reduction had taken place at these agencies.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta expressed support for the ruling in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We’re pleased with the court’s decision to restrain the Trump Admin’s reckless directive and we’ll continue to monitor and ensure compliance,” he wrote.
The White House has yet to provide a response to the ruling.