Trump government illegally ordered mass firings: Judge

A federal judge ruled on Friday that US President Donald Trump's administration had unlawfully directed the firing of thousands of federal workers, but he did not order their reinstatement, citing recent US Supreme Court decisions.

US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco stuck by his preliminary conclusion in the case that the US Office of Personnel Management in February unlawfully ordered numerous agencies to fire probationary employees en masse.

Unions, nonprofits and Washington state had sued after Trump's administration moved to fire roughly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have less than a year of service, though some are longtime workers in new jobs.


Alsup said ordinarily he would "set aside OPM's unlawful directive and unwind its consequences."