Judge extends block on probationary employee firings, but only in some states  

A federal judge Tuesday indefinitely barred the Trump administration from terminating thousands of probationary employees, but he declined to extend his order nationwide. 

U.S. District Judge James Bredar previously ordered officials to temporarily reinstate probationary employees fired at 18 agencies, no matter where they physically worked. 

Replacing that order, the judge’s new preliminary injunction covers two additional agencies, the Defense Department and the Office of Personnel Management. But it simultaneously limits the reinstatements to only those employees whose “duty station” is within Washington, D.C., and the 19 states that are suing.  

“Only states have sued here, and only to vindicate their interests as states. They are not proxies for the workers,” wrote Bredar, an appointee of former President Obama. 

“Presumably well informed, each state is entitled to decide for itself whether it will seek relief in the present circumstances; it would be inappropriate for the Court to fashion relief having the consequence that decisions properly reserved to the non-party states are effectively, and unnecessarily overruled by this Court,” he continued. 

The Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have looked to make sweeping cuts to the federal bureaucracy, including mass terminations of federal employees in their probationary status, meaning those generally in their first or second year in a position. 

Bredar ruled the mass terminations constitute a “reduction in force,” or RIF, which requires notice and other procedures the Trump administration didn’t follow. 

“The government can terminate probationary employees en masse.... but when it does so it must follow certain laws and regulations,” the judge wrote. “Recently, government agencies executed a series of mass terminations, but when they did so, on the record before the Court, they failed to follow mandatory RIF procedures.” 

Bredar’s order includes probationary employees fired in the mass terminations at the Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs departments.  

It also covers the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development. 

The employees must work in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin or Washington, D.C. 

Republicans have increasingly criticized district judges in recent weeks who have issued nationwide blocks on Trump's policies, and some GOP lawmakers are making moves to restrict district judges' ability to grant relief beyond the parties before them.

Bredar’s ruling is the broadest current injunction blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate probationary employees, but it is just one of multiple lawsuits proceeding through the courts. 

In a separate case, the Trump administration has appealed a judge’s ruling reinstating 16,000 probationary employees across six agencies to the Supreme Court. The court is expected to rule on the emergency application after the plaintiffs respond in writing Thursday.