Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is seeking a temporary restraining order from a federal court to stop the mass layoffs of federal workers and to reinstate those who have been fired.
Brown, along with 20 other attorneys general, filed the motion in the U.S. District Court for Maryland late Thursday night.
“According to public reports, the Trump administration has fired roughly 23,000 probationary employees over the past three weeks, not because they were bad at their jobs or because they didn't do important work, but simply because the president will do anything to eliminate federal workers,” Brown said in a statement.
The lawsuit says that the federal government must inform states 60 days prior of any attempt to layoff large amounts of its workforce so that states can prepare for the fallout.
Brown says the White House did not do that, making the layoffs illegal.
“This is a coordinated effort to eliminate the federal workforce by any means necessary,” Brown said. “These indiscriminate firings don't just jeopardize people's livelihoods, they're also a serious threat to our state. A surge in unemployment will strain Maryland's resources, reduce our tax revenues, while increasing demand for social services and hinder state government's ability to help people find new jobs and apply for unemployment benefits.”
The states are also alleging that the firings are doing irreparable damage to their health benefits agencies and unemployment benefits administrations.
A federal judge in San Fransico ruled last week that the firing of thousands of probationary federal employees was illegal.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind layoffs of employees working at the National Park Service, The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Defense.
The Trump administration says it is cutting jobs to reduce waste.
“We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to,” President Donald Trump said during a Feb. 27 cabinet meeting. “We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job.”
However, many like Brown say that the cuts cleave off large parts of the workforce without retaining the most talented and valuable.
There have already been a handful of instances where the administration has had to backpedal layoffs after firing essential personnel.
Most notably people who work on nuclear weapons programs and those who are working to combat bird flu.
Federal workers are also pushing back with class action suits. The federal Merit Systems Protection Board received at least six appeals and is expecting more as federal workers start to challenge their eliminations.
