We revisit that same file we’ve had to look at a few times in the last few days, the, umm “Obvious and Predictable” thing, as all of us have noted since about last Friday, it was only a matter of time until DOGE ran right up against the pen of a guy that had a few questions about how all those terminations were going down without any sort of Congressional action, or rules in place (Like, Government type stuff). Everyone knew that all these dramatic changes by just a guy and a few others on a “mission” without even so much as a presidential order – maybe a few tweets, maybe a comment in a press conference, no more would trigger some folks to slow things down to protect their legal rights. Thus it is that late on Thursday a federal judge said, “Wait a minute… ” and stopped DOGE until such time as he figures out if any of this is legal. Wholly predictable. According to a report in The Washington Post.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives that initiated the mass firing of probationary government workers in several agencies across the government, ruling that the terminations were probably illegal, as a group of labor unions argued in court.
Yeah, that will happen. True, it doesn’t call out DOGE specifically, only those things DOGE has initiated and found to be in accord with their desires. Generally speaking there are protections for government workers fired by other government workers (Even if it was the president he would be held to doing so under the laws and rules in place) and it has to be done in accord with, well – how these things are done. And they aren’t done by email, or by some guy who by his own admission isn’t exactly a normal government employee. Judges are funny that way. In court, after hearing what’s going on, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear “You did what? Why? And it never occurred to you that there were rules in place for how to do this? No? Well, there are.”
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered OPM to rescind its prior directives to agencies including the Department of Defense, the Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, and others. The ruling is one of the biggest roadblocks so far to President Donald Trump’s effort to slash the federal workforce.
Yes it is a roadblock because – for all the talk about the administration and DOGE ignoring rulings, doing so would sort of take this to a level that they probably don’t want to be. Not only that but ignoring judicial rulings is a great way to end up paying daily fines and risking getting thrown in jail until such time as you wholly agree, “Yes, yes I will abide by the ruling… ”
Again, this isn’t rocket surgery. The government has a hard time doing much of anything without being able to show that the rules in place are being followed. That’s why they have rules. If the Trump administration doesn’t like those rules they are free to go to Congress and say, “This would be better if… ” Or, take an existing law and promulgate their own rules, which don’t go into effect until there is a time for the public to review them… They matter. Having some guy running around firing park rangers as if that is what has been keeping the country back is a great way to have a judge wanting to know a bit more before sending you on your way.
The other thing about rules is even if you think you’re doing it by the book, if it sounds like there might be an issue – one that would be near impossible to reverse, the only sane way to go about it is to stop for a bit until you can explain why it actually is legal and right. If so, the judge is free to look at it and say, “Yep, that is what it says. Okay, the restraining order is lifted and an order will issue that the case has been determined.”
So this was coming. Everyone knew it. We know that some of the GOP in Congress (Especially the Senate) will sort of wipe their brow and then try to talk to some folks about it and look at what they really can absorb politically and what they clearly cannot. Now they can catch their breath. Few hearts are broken.
This isn’t over by a long shot. But it is on a different track for now.
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maybe no-one’s replied because they’ve fainted with relief?