A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the National Park Service and five other federal agencies to immediately reinstate probationary employees who were fired en masse last month, ruling that the Office of Personnel Management had no legal authority to mandate their terminations.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, in a scathing rebuke of the Donald Trump administration’s actions, declared the mass firings a violation of federal law and accused officials of using procedural loopholes to sidestep legal protections. In addition to 1,000 employees who were terminated from the park service, his order affects employees at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury, who were abruptly dismissed in February.

“It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said from the bench. “That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements.”

  • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    Alsup absolutely based, yet again. Common Alsup W. This is the same guy that has repeatedly bitch slapped the tech giants like Oracle and Google by learning how to develop software.

  • Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 hours ago

    We can celebrate if and when they’re actually reinstated and the people who put them out of a job are put out of a job themselves.

  • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
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    10 hours ago

    Empty victory. Sec. 1113 (b) of the CR that’s likely to pass today.

    If a sequestration is ordered by the President under section 254 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, the spending, expenditure, or operating plan required by this section shall reflect such sequestration

    This will formally authorize the President to begin sequestration. Which legally allows him to start firing people. And as you can in the language of the bill, the budget will automatically correct to be whatever value that sequestered amount the President decides on.

    So yeah, they get to be rehired only to be legally fired this next go round.

    • Sonicdemon86@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      If they pass it Trump has a legal way to fire people and if they don’t pass it Trump has a legal way to fire people. In a government shutdown Trump gets to decide who is essential and who gets fired.

      • havocpants@lemm.ee
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        4 hours ago

        Why is it always the fault of the people not in power, rather than the fucking shitheads doing bad things?

        • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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          4 hours ago

          Nobody said it’s their fault. We’re saying it’s pathetic that they keep just rolling over and enabling it while campaigning on resistance. We’re calling out the lies and hypocrisy, and pointing out that they are just controlled opposition in the one-party state.