A Maryland judge Thursday put a temporary halt to firings of probationary employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Department of Treasury, Small Business Administration and several other federal agencies.
Judge James K. Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that the layoffs violated legal requirements to provide states with advance notice, the absence of which hindered their ability to respond to the increased demand for unemployment and social services. The Judge said he was not convinced by the government's claims that it dismissed the probationary employees for performance or "individualized" reasons.
"There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively … these big government layoffs were actually 'Reductions in Force,'" which require notice, the Judge wrote in the ruling. "Because the federal government's recent discharge of thousands of probationary employees was not executed in compliance with rules intended to ensure that states are ready to bear the load cast upon them when mass layoffs occur, and because the plaintiff states are not yet in fact so prepared, and because of the violations, the recent directives of various federal agencies terminating probationary employees must be stayed."
The motion's temporary restraining order reverses the layoffs — requiring affected employees to be reinstated — for fourteen days while the court considers further action. The court found that the states are likely to succeed in their case, are suffering irreparable harm and that issuing a temporary restraining order serves the public interest by preventing further harm to both the states and the affected workers. These agencies are now prohibited from conducting further staff reductions until the court reviews the case in greater detail.
The case centers around a legal challenge — State of Maryland, et al. v. United States Department of Agriculture, et al. — filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia in March against the Trump administration regarding its termination of thousands of probationary federal employees in recent weeks.
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The CFPB's labor union celebrated the decision as a victory for workers' rights.
"I'm thrilled to see my brilliant colleagues reinstated, thanks to the plaintiffs and Judge Bredar's wisdom in granting this temporary restraining order," said Cat Farman, CFPB union chapter president and front end web developer at the agency. "The judge rightly recognizes the DOGE mass firings as illegal RIFs, and that agencies must right these wrongs for employees caught up in Elon Musk's attacks on public services."
In an email obtained by American Banker, Nelle Rohlich, the CFPB union's chief steward, noted the court ruling to the CFPB's Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez requesting an update as to when the agency will reinstate terminated employees. According to the email, as recently as Friday morning, the agency was telling terminated employees they would remain terminated — an apparent contradiction to the court ruling.
"We are demanding you immediately comply with the court order," Rohlich wrote. "Please."
Affected employees also expressed optimism with the ruling, praising the court's recognition of what they saw as unjust terminations and reaffirming their commitment to continue fighting for public services and workers' protections.
"Protecting the American public from Wall Street is meaningful but difficult work," said Jasmine McAllister, a CFPB data scientist who was terminated, in a statement provided by the CFPB labor union. "I've worked hard in my career to get to CFPB. I received a termination letter at 9 p.m. that didn't even have my name on it, but claimed I was being terminated for performance reasons. Everyone else got the same email that night, with no notice to our managers, meaning the performance justification couldn't possibly be true. It's common sense for the court to recognize this."
The order also applies to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs departments, among several others. The order requires affected employees be reinstated by March 17, 2025, and prevents further staff reductions until the agencies comply with legal notice requirements. The case will continue with a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for March 26, 2025.
— Kate Berry contributed to this report.
