A government watchdog wants more than 5,000 probationary employees to be reinstated at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the latest example of resistance to President Donald Trump ‘s efforts to downsize the federal workforce.
The Office of Special Counsel made the request Friday and disclosed it Tuesday. If the request is granted by the Merit Systems Protection Board, the employees would be back on the job for 45 days as an investigation continues. At that point, the board could be asked to make a final decision to reinstate them.
Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger said the firings “appear to have been carried out in a manner inconsistent with federal personnel laws.” It’s possible that he could reach similar conclusions about employees at other departments as well.
Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. They were often summarily informed that they were being fired for poor performance.
The case is proceeding at a moment of turbulence for the federal workforce and the offices responsible for protecting workers’ rights. Not only are administration officials laying off thousands of employees, Trump wants to remove obstacles by firing Dellinger and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board nominated by President Joe Biden.
Both attempts have been blocked through litigation, most recently on Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Trump did not have the power to remove Harris from office “at will.”
The attempt to fire her was illegal because he didn’t seek to remove her for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” the judge said.
The one-sentence email that informed Harris of her firing didn’t cite any of those reasons, Harris’ attorneys said.
“There are hard constitutional cases where the law remains unsettled and the Supreme Court has not spoken. This case is not among them,” they wrote in a court filing.
Administration officials have already appealed Contreras’ order.
Harris was appointed in 2022 and has chaired the board since last March. Her term was due to expire in March 2028, but the White House notified her of her firing on Feb. 12. A second board member, Raymond Limon, retired Friday.
Government attorneys argued that the judiciary doesn’t have the authority to reinstate Harris or bar Trump from replacing her on the board.
“The American people elected President Trump to run the executive branch,” they wrote. “And President Trump has determined that keeping [Harris] in office no longer serves the best interests of the American people. That democratically accountable choice should be respected.”
The Merit Systems Protection Board is responsible for protecting federal government employees from political reprisals or retaliation for whistleblowing. Its administrative judges issue approximately 5,000 decisions annually.
Trump’s recent executive orders regarding federal employees have led to a surge in new appeals over the past few weeks, according to Harris’ lawyers.
“Now more than ever, the Board’s actual impartiality and the appearance of impartiality are critical,” they wrote. “It is imperative that everyone — civil servants, courts, and the public at large — has confidence in the Board’s ability to do its job, free from fear or favor.”
The board’s three members are nominated by the president and are confirmed by the Senate. Members serve seven-year terms. No more than two of them may come from the same political party.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with Dellinger in a case that’s likely headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court.
