A federal District Court in Northern California (William Alsup) has issued a temporary restraining order of firing probationary employees pursuant to directives from the Office of Personnel Management. The plaintiffs included a number of individual employees who had been terminated and a group of organizations, including the American Federation of Government Employees and numerous nonprofit organizations with interests in specific governmental programs.
Plaintiffs argued that employees were terminated en masse pursuant to directives from OPM and produced both oral and documentary testimony showing that governmental agencies had acted because they were directed to do so by OPM. Plaintiffs also argued that the firings were based on a false blanket determination that individuals had not shown that their work was critical to the government. OPM argued that it did not direct the agencies to act, but the Court said that the plaintiffs has “a mountain of evidence” to the contrary.
The Court found that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the argument that the OPM termination directive amounted to an ultra vires act. “No statute — anywhere, ever — has granted OPM the authority to direct the termination of employees in other agencies,” the Court said. The Court also said that it was likely to prevail on its claims that OPM violated the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to follow the rules for governmental rulemaking.
The Court said it was unlikely to have jurisdiction over the claims of the AFGE because union relationships are governed by other statutes that require administrative proceedings before a Union may go to court, but said it had jurisdiction over the claims of other organizations, going at length into the facts that gave them standing. (American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, v. United States Office of Personnel Management, N.D. CA, No C 25-01780, 2/28/25.)
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