Week 20 saw Trump facing several legal setbacks over his unlawful actions and an appeals court reopening a case that may have sweeping implications for federal workers.
In Week 20, an appeals court reopened a case that could impact all federal employees and unions seeking justice against President Trump’s illegal policies and actions.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals asked a district court to find out whether the two independent agencies Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) created under the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) to review cases related to federal agencies and employees are still functioning as intended considering the recent firings of their leaders and lack of quorum to issue decisions.
At issue is a lawsuit brought by the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) against the Justice Department for prohibiting immigration judges from speaking or writing publicly in their personal capacity. In 2023, a district court judge dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. The judge ruled that NAIJ had to bring their case to MSPB first in accordance with CSRA procedures.
But the Appeals Court on June 3 questioned whether the controversial firings of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger and two members of the MSPB have undermined the CSRA procedures and its ability to provide federal workers meaningful review.
The MSPB is now lacking a quorum to issue decisions as it has only one member. OSC is now led by a Trump appointee whose first action was to reverse its position on firings of probationary employees. Trump’s OSC is now saying probationary employees can be fired for almost any reason.
“These removals and the lack of quorum in the MSPB raise serious questions as to whether the CSRA’s adjudicatory scheme continues to function as intended. Such a question, which turns on a factual record, is best addressed by the district court in the first instance. We therefore remand to the district court to assess the functionality of the CSRA’s adjudicatory scheme,” said the appeals court.
“We cannot allow our black robes to insulate us from taking notice of items in the public record, including, relevant here, circumstances that may have undermined the functioning of the CSRA’s adjudicatory scheme. We therefore vacate and remand to the district court to 31 engage in factfinding to determine whether—given current circumstances—it may properly exercise subject matter jurisdiction over NAIJ’s claims,”
The appeals court also pointed out that “the CSRA mandates that the members of the MSPB and the Special Counsel can be removed by the President “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Meanwhile, chaos continues at agencies nationwide as the administration is trying to rehire workers who have been fired by DOGE. Yet according to Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal, mass layoffs may continue as the administration plans to eliminate more than 107,000 jobs.
Here’s a quick recap of Trump’s attacks on America in his 20th week in office, how these actions hurt federal workers and the American people they serve, and how We the People fight back:
June 6: Thousands of veterans and allies gathered in Washington, D.C. to hold political leaders accountable for policies that harm veterans and their families. They came from all 50 states, plus Washington and Puerto Rico, in direct response to recent federal layoffs and firings, budget cuts, and efforts to dismantle the Department of Veterans Affairs.
June 5: Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. blocked Trump’s Labor Department from dismantling the Job Corps training program for 25,000 low-income students at 120 centers across the country.
June 5: Judge Deborah L. Boardman ordered Trump to restore AmeriCorps-funded programs in 24 states that sued him in April. The judge, however, rejected the states’ request to restore most of the 500 federal workers who have been placed on administrative leave in April.
June 5: AFGE asked Judge William Alsup to convert the April preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction blocking Trump’s illegal mass firings of probationary employees.
June 4: In response to AFGE and coalition’s court filing, Judge Susan Illston said the Trump administration is likely violating her firing pause when it continued to engage in mass reductions in force at the departments of State and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She will hold a hearing the following week to allow the administration to submit evidence before deciding whether it has indeed violated her order.
June 3: Trump filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court asking the justices to allow him to proceed with the mass layoffs of federal workers. The filing came after an appeals court May 30 rejected his request to block the lower court’s order blocking the mass reductions in force.
June 3: An appeals court reopened a case in which it asked a district court to find out whether Trump’s controversial firings of the leaders of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) and Office of Special Counsel (OSC) have undermined the independent agencies’ ability to provide meaningful reviews of cases related to federal agencies and employees under the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA).
June 3: Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services filed a class action lawsuit against the agency for relying on error-ridden data to lay off 10,000 people. Employees, for example, saw in their RIF notices that they had lower performance ratings than they actually received or were listed as working in wrong offices or locations.
June 3: Democratic congressional leaders asked the Department of Education to fully comply with its inspector general’s investigation into the agency’s mass layoffs of workers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has officially walked back its plan to lay off more than 80,000 employees as part of the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative.
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In a significant decision impacting the federal workforce, the Supreme Court lifted lower-court injunctions, enabling the current administration to proceed with its controversial plans for mass layoffs and restructuring of federal agencies.
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In a late-breaking development, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a temporary administrative stay of the preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Executive Order 14251.
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