Maryland, along with 18 other states and the District of Columbia say the federal government’s mass layoffs of probationary federal workers is causing irreparable harm to the state governments.
The jurisdictions are asking U.S. District Court of Maryland Judge James Bredar for a temporary restraining order that will halt the firings and reinstate about 23,000 workers.
At the crux of the matter is if the government performed a reduction in force (RIF). In that case, the government is required by law to notify states sixty days before the layoffs.
Reductions in force are when an administration lays people off due to a policy change or change in leadership.
The Trump administration says the layoffs were not a RIF, but rather based on performance reviews of probationary employees.
However, Bredar seemed skeptical that the administration conducted that many reviews in the last six weeks.
“If a whole category of employees aren’t needed for the government because of a broader objective then isn’t that a RIF?” Bredar said Wednesday. He later said defense attorney Eric Hamilton seemed to be trying to jam a square peg in a round hole with the argument.
“If there is a change in direction of how the government is working and they decide to shift thousands of people out of federal employment. That may be their prerogative, but if they do it then they need to tell the states,” Bredar said.
The states say the harm they are experiencing comes from having to guess what the administration is doing in order to provide lawfully required services like unemployment benefits.
The states say they relied on newspapers and word of mouth to get the information they needed to give services to newly dismissed employees.
The states say they have had to set up ad hoc websites and search for people who have lost their jobs to ensure they get the benefits for which they are entitled.
Bredar said he will issue a decision promptly.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced he was leading the case against the White House on Friday.
“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.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled earlier this month 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.
