Check and Balance!
New York City, US Mar 13 (EFE).-
A federal judge in Maryland ordered Thursday the reinstatement of workers laid off at 18 US agencies by President Donald Trump’s administration, which is aiming to drastically downsize the government.
Judge James Bredar – appointed by former President Barack Obama -reversed the dismissals of probationary employees at the departments of agriculture, commerce, education, energy, health and human Services, homeland security, labor, state, transportation, and treasury, among others.
Bredar’s order is even broader than a ruling issued the same day by another federal judge, who ordered six departments to rehire their probationary workers.
Both judges concluded that the Trump administration used false allegations of “performance” issues as a pretext to justify the layoffs, thus ignoring mandatory legal procedures for reducing staff.
Bredar’s ruling, which lasts 14 days but could be extended, follows a lawsuit filed by Democratic state attorneys general and another filed by federal employee unions.
Both rulings came on the same day that the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to restrict district judges’ authority to issue injunctions blocking federal policies. EFE
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