US judge blocks Trump administration's plans for mass firing of federal employees

It’s almost like he’s still in campaign-mode rather than realizing he’s head of a large agency and workforce.”

Speaking to NBC News anonymously, the official told the news network Kennedy has done nothing about the outbreak, observing

I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind

Musk said via a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai , United Arab Emirates

OPM lacks constitutional, statutory, or regulatory power to order other federal agencies to terminate employees who Congress authorized those agencies to hire and manage,

attorneys said

OPM, the federal agency charged with implementing this nation's employment laws, in one fell swoop has perpetrated one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country,

a plaintiffs' legal filing said, ... according to the Post

Agencies made their own decisions about which probationary employees they wished to keep and which probationary employees they wished to terminate,

the attorneys said

William Alsupjudge

[We ... We] can't run our agencies with lies,

Alsup said during the hearing

These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities, only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration's disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work."

President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley one of the unions which are the plaintiff in the case, said about the mass firings

That’s just not right in our country, is it, that we would run our agencies with lies like that and stain somebody’s record for the rest of their life

Alsup said as he issued his ruling from the bench after a court hearing in a lawsuit brought by labor unions and organizations whose members are served by agencies hobbled by the mass terminations

It is simply not credible, your honor,

lawyer Danielle Leonard said

How could so much of the workforce be amputated suddenly overnight?”

the judge asked rhetorically

Asking is not ordering someone to do something,

said Helland, who sat alone at the defense table in the courtroom

Congress has given the authority to hire and fire to the agencies themselves. The Department of Defense, for example, has statutory authority to hire and fire,

U.S. District Judge William Alsup reportedly said from the bench Thursday afternoon in San Francisco

What it means in practical effects is the agencies of the federal government should hear the court's warning that that order was unlawful,

said Danielle Leonard, an attorney for the coalition, after the hearing

I think plaintiffs are conflating a request by OPM with an order by OPM,

said Kelsey Helland, an assistant U.S. attorney in court Thursday

The agencies could thumb their noses at OPM if they wanted to if it's guidance, but if it's an order, or cast as an order, the agencies may think they have to comply,

he said

The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency,

Alsup said Thursday night

The government’s position, for the first time in history of the United States, is that these employees can be fired at will,

an attorney for plaintiffs, Danielle Leonard said

An order is not usually phrased as a request,

Helland said

Something aberrational happens, not just in one agency, but all across the government, in many agencies on the same day, the same thing. Doesn’t that sound like to you that somebody ordered it to happen, as opposed to, oh we just got guidance,

Alsup posited to local Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey Helland, who was the only representative of the government at the hearing

Are they really contending to this court that all of these federal employees are lying, Your Honor?”

Leonard asked