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3-15-2025 11:54pm
Federal Workers Fired by Trump Administration Must Be Reinstated by March 17th, Court Rules
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Thousands of federal probationary workers who were fired by the Trump Administration in a series of mass layoffs this year must be reinstated to their roles by 1 p.m. EST on Monday, March 17, under a March 13th order by the U.S. District Court of Maryland. The court has granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) sought by a coalition of 20 state attorney generals, including Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, as part of the coalition's lawsuit filed on March 6th against 41 agencies and agency heads of the Trump Administration.
According to AG Campbell, the court’s TRO reinstates jobs for thousands of federal workers in Massachusetts. “As our lawsuit proceeds, I will continue to stand up for our workers, protecting them from reckless actions that threaten both their rights and our state’s public resources,” said AG Campbell.
A press release from the AG’s office states that although the Trump Administration claimed the firings were due to inadequate performance, no individualized findings were made in the mass firings. For example, the coalition’s lawsuit claims that the fired employees were notified of their terminations by form letter and emails, which in many cases did not include employee names or job titles.
The coalition argues that the Trump Administration failed to follow federal laws and regulations that provide federal workers with protections in large-scale federal “Reductions in Force” (RIF). Such protections include giving military veterans preference in retaining their positions and giving at least 60 days advance notice to state governments when a RIF results in laying off 50 or more employees in a particular area.
The coalition asserts harms from the mass firings include the inability of states to proactively mitigate the harm of sudden job loss, the loss of services provided by those federal employees, increased administrative demands on the states from unemployment claims, increased demand for social services, and decreased tax revenues.
In response, the Trump Administration argues that the states have shown no concrete harm, the court does not have power to provide a remedy, and that the complaint should be heard not by the court but by the Merit Systems Protection Board which reviews personnel action against federal employees. The defendants state that there is no requirement that termination notices provide any particularized assessment of employee conduct or performance. They distinguish the mass firings as "terminations of probationers" which they say don't have the same legal protections for employees as RIF.
Regarding harm to the states, the Trump Administration claims that the firings only impose "peripheral costs" to the states. On the other hand, defendants say that preventing the Administration from firing the employees would cause harm on the defendants who would have to pay employees' salaries.
"In addition, the States' requested TRO would interfere with the President's ability to manage, shape, and streamline the federal workforce to more closely reflect policy preference and the needs of the American public," say the defendants.
In Massachusetts, according to AG Campbell’s office, the mass firing of federal probationary employees has affected workers in U.S. Departments of Treasury, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs.
Representative Stephen Lynch is a member of the House Litigation Working Group that Democrats formed to push back against “far-right extremism that is being relentlessly unleashed." He posted a reaction to the court's grant of a TRO on the following day to the social media platform, X.
“I am encouraged by yesterday’s Federal District Court decision to immediately reinstate more than 20,000 federal workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Treasury, the Department of Defense, and other critical agencies, who were unlawfully fired by President Trump and Elon Musk,” said Representative Lynch.
The U.S. District Court of Maryland has ordered the defendant federal agencies and Trump Administration to provide documentation of actions they have taken to comply with the TRO. They must do so by 1 p.m. EST on Monday, March 17th.
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