The White House on Friday vowed to appeal the federal court rulings that required the Trump administration to reinstate probationary government employees who judges said were fired unlawfully at several agencies.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the injunction was “entirely unconstitutional” and said the administration would respond aggressively.
“Fighting back by appealing. Fighting back by using the full weight of the White House’s counsels’ office,” Leavitt said.
Federal judges in both Maryland and Northern California district courts issued orders Thursday halting the mass dismissals.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s ruling on Thursday required the government to reinstate probationary employees fired on Feb. 13 and 14 at the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury departments.
A second ruling from District Judge James Bredar was even broader, temporarily reinstating probationary employees at 18 federal agencies.
“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice. It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons,” wrote Bredar, an appointee of former President Obama.
“On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively,” he added.
Leavitt accused the “low level” judges of usurping executive power.
“And as the executive of the executive branch, the president has the ability to hire or hire and you have these lower-level judges who are trying to block this president’s agenda. It’s very clear,” she told reporters.
The case was one of multiple pending lawsuits challenging the mass terminations of probationary workers, who are usually in their first or second year in a new role, which has been part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reshape and overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
Leavitt said that in February alone, there were 15 injunctions imposed on the administration’s actions, compared to 14 injunctions during three years of the Biden administration, citing data in the Harvard Law Review published in April 2024.
Leavitt also argued that judges ruling against the Trump administration’s agenda are activists and partisan.
“It’s very clear that there are judicial activists throughout our judicial branch who are trying to block this president’s executive authority, we are going to fight back,” she said. “All of the indictments, all of these injunctions have always been unconstitutional and unfair. They are led by partisan activists.”
