A federal judge just took a chainsaw to Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s attempt to mass-fire thousands of government employees, saying the DOGE team “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe” to fire these workers.
The eyes of the nation were on the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, as veteran’s groups and unions representing federal workers had brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration for their plans to fire thousands of employees in Elon Musk’s purge of the federal government. While Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not being sued directly, it’s Musk’s influence at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that brought on the lawsuit, and the suit does cite Musk’s infamous “name five things you did last week” tweet and email.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
The suit was before Senior US District Judge William Alsup on Thursday. And Reuters reports that late Thursday afternoon, Alsup halted the mass firings of federal employees, or at least, the firing of employees outside the OPM. Alsup effectively ruled that the OPM is free to fire its own employees, but it cannot order the firings of employees of other federal departments outside the OPM.
Breaking: U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies to carry out the mass firings of thousands of recently hired employees. https://t.co/6xBftmtdWL
— Nate Raymond (@nateraymond) February 27, 2025
So the ruling, for now, saves the jobs of federal employees at the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs Department, National Parks Service, Small Business Administration, Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, and a host of other federal agencies.
Here’s graph from Post pic.twitter.com/TBluipQLdI
— Barred in DC (@BarredinDC) February 27, 2025
And here’s a humdinger from Alsup’s ruling. “The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency,” he wrote, “They can hire and fire their own employees.”
When federal agencies fire employees for no reason “that’s just not right in our country,” said Judge William Alsup as he ruled from the bench, adding that we can’t “run our agencies with lies.” https://t.co/AFheJYNkn7
— Jonah Owen Lamb (@jonahowenlamb) February 27, 2025
Thursday’s ruling was not a total loss for the assistant US Attorney representing Trump and Musk’s position in court. As the SF Standard’s Jonah Owen Lamb points out, Alsup gave that lawyer a nice acknowledgement. “I want to compliment the government lawyer,” he said. “You have a hard case to make and you’ve done it honorably.”
This is just a temporary restraint on the firings, this case is still ongoing, and the departments could still just choose to fire their own employees. But for now, thousands of federal employees’ jobs were just saved in one fell swoop.
Related: Guys Who Posed as DOGE at SF City Hall Are YouTube Trolls Who Also Harassed Kamala Harris HQ [SFist]
Image: OXON HILL, MARYLAND - FEBRUARY 20: CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk leaves the stage holding a chainsaw after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The annual four-day gathering brings together conservative U.S. lawmakers, international leaders, media personalities and businessmen to discuss and champion conservative ideas. Argentinian President Javier Milei gifted Musk a chainsaw that he used as a prop while campaigning. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
