{"id":39914,"date":"2025-03-01T12:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=39914"},"modified":"2025-03-01T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:26:11","slug":"sf-judge-temporarily-blocks-musk-and-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/sf-judge-temporarily-blocks-musk-and-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Judge Temporarily Blocks Musk and Trump\u2019s Mass Firing of Federal Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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27 FEBRUARY 2025\/SF NEWS<\/a>\/JOE KUKURA<\/a> (SFist.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge just took a chainsaw to Elon Musk and Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to mass-fire thousands of government employees, saying the DOGE team \u201cdoes not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe\u201d to fire these workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eyes of the nation were on the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, as veteran\u2019s groups and unions representing federal workers had brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration<\/a> for their plans to fire thousands of employees in Elon Musk\u2019s purge of the federal government<\/a>. While Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not being sued directly, it\u2019s Musk\u2019s influence at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that brought on the lawsuit, and the suit does cite Musk\u2019s infamous \u201cname five things you did last week\u201d tweet and email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1893386883444437415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1893386883444437415%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfist.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fsf-judge-temporarily-blocks-musk-and-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees%2F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/nateraymond\/status\/1895255168175702334?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1895255168175702334%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfist.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fsf-judge-temporarily-blocks-musk-and-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees%2F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/BarredinDC\/status\/1895259407468110128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1895259407468110128%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfist.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fsf-judge-temporarily-blocks-musk-and-trumps-mass-firing-of-federal-employees%2F<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s a humdinger from Alsup\u2019s ruling<\/a>. \u201cThe 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,\u201d he wrote, \u201cThey can hire and fire their own employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thursday\u2019s ruling was not a total loss for the assistant US Attorney representing Trump and Musk\u2019s position in court. As the SF Standard\u2019s Jonah Owen Lamb points out<\/a>, Alsup gave that lawyer a nice acknowledgement.  \u201cI want to compliment the government lawyer,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have a hard case to make and you\u2019ve done it honorably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 jobs were just saved in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>Guys Who Posed as DOGE at SF City Hall Are YouTube Trolls Who Also Harassed Kamala Harris HQ [SFist]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 FEBRUARY 2025\/SF NEWS\/JOE KUKURA (SFist.com) A federal judge just took a chainsaw to Elon Musk and Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to mass-fire thousands of government employees, saying the DOGE team \u201cdoes not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe\u201d to fire these workers. The… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39916,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914\/revisions\/39916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}