The probation staff at OPM fired on a conference call and on February 13, 2025, in Washington, DC, USA, the probation staff at OPM were fired for less than an hour, and security personnel lowered the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) flag outside the OPM headquarters.
Tierney L. Cross | Reuters
A federal judge ordered the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday to revoke earlier instructions, telling federal agencies to “immediately determine whether the employees should be retained.”
The direction is on January 20th memorandum The internal email on February 14 was “illegal” and “should be stopped,” Judge William Alsup of California’s North District said on the bench.
The ruling will not restore fired employees.
The judge directed the Office of Personnel Management on Friday with the Department of Defense to terminate the expected trial – he ruled that they were invalid.
Alsup also ordered a hearing, in which Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell will testify. The timing of the hearing is unclear.
“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority to hire and fire employees within another agency under any regulations in the history of the universe,” Alsup said Thursday night. “It can hire its own employees, yes. It can fire them. But it cannot order or direct other agencies to do so.”
He said: “OPM has no right to tell any agency in the U.S. government that they can hire and fire, except themselves.
Alsup calls trial employees “the lifeblood of our government.”
“They go to low levels and work hard, and that’s how we renew ourselves and reinvent ourselves,” he said.
“The first position in U.S. history of the government is to fire these employees at will,” said Danielle Leonard. “It’s not the law, your honor. Probation employees and agencies do have an obligation before firing probation employees.”
Leonard pleaded with the court to plead, “The government should not keep it confidential when firing so many people on wholesale orders.”
There is a big difference on whether the phone number of OPM to the agency that fired probation employees in mid-February is “order” or “request”.
“Not only in one agency, but in many of the day, something malformed happened. In many agencies, the same thing happened. It doesn’t sound like you ordered someone to order it to happen, not ‘Oh, we just got guidance,” Alsup told local assistant attorney Kelsey Helland, the only one who represented the government at the hearing.
“It is not usually worded as a request,” Helland said. “Ask is not an order to do something.”
Helland recommends that affected employees should go through the Office of Special Advisers or the Excellent System Protection Committee to deal with their employment status, and such temporary restraining orders are unnecessary.
“Do they really argue in court that all these federal employees are lying, your honor?” Leonard asked. “That’s what the lawyer is saying. I don’t think it’s credible.”
Thousands of people It may be affected by the Trump administration’s directives. OPMalthough the exact number of people termination is not clear.
