Overview

• U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued a final ruling that the Office of Personnel Management exceeded its authority by directing other agencies to remove probationary employees.
• The court cited evidence that OPM required daily termination updates, controlled exemptions, and used template letters citing performance even though performance was not the true basis.
• More than 25,000 probationary workers were terminated across multiple departments, including Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Defense, and Treasury.
• Alsup declined to order mass reinstatements due to elapsed time and reorganizations, and he barred retroactively dating second terminations to earlier removals for workers rehired during injunctions.
• Agencies must correct personnel files and, by Nov. 14, send letters stating the firings were not for performance, while OPM is permanently barred from directing similar purges or issuing pretextual templates; the Justice Department is expected to appeal after the Supreme Court earlier set aside preliminary reinstatement orders.