Nineteen states and the District of Columbia filed a blockbuster lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration, accusing it of illegally firing tens of thousands of federal probationary employees without notice, plunging states into economic turmoil and flouting federal law.
Lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the complaint targets nearly every Cabinet agency and key appointees, from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, alleging a coordinated purge that’s sparked chaos for workers and state services alike.
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Led by Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and joined by states like California, New York, and Illinois, the plaintiffs claim President Donald Trump’s team has “run roughshod” over Reduction in Force (RIF) rules since taking office on January 20.
Federal law mandates 60 days’ notice to employees and states before mass layoffs, a safeguard the suit says was ignored as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered agencies to axe roughly 220,000 probationary workers—those in their first one or two years—starting in February.
“These large-scale, indiscriminate firings are not only subjecting the Plaintiff States and communities across the country to chaos,” the complaint states, “they are also against the law.”
The fallout? States report a surge in unemployment claims, strained social services, and scrambled rapid response teams unable to prep for the sudden job losses.
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Maryland alone has logged 813 claims from ex-federal workers since January 21, dwarfing last year’s pace, while Illinois nears its 2024 total in just weeks.
The suit details firings across agencies—6,700 at the IRS, 3,400 in the Forest Service, 2,000 at Veterans Affairs—often with generic form letters citing “performance” despite evidence of top-down orders, not individual failings.
“The true reason … was to reduce the size of the federal workforce,” the filing asserts, calling such moves RIFs mislabeled to dodge procedure.
Plaintiffs say the lack of notice—required under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act—has crippled their ability to cushion the blow. Maryland’s labor department, for instance, has resorted to begging agencies for layoff details, while New Jersey lost CDC staffers mid-public health crises like H5N1 and measles, only learning of terminations after the fact.
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The District of Columbia projects millions in lost tax revenue; Maryland fears wage drops and out-migration. “Defendants’ failure to provide notice has inflicted immense harms on tens of thousands of probationary employees and their families,” the suit argues, spotlighting veterans among the sacked who should’ve gotten retention preference.
The legal salvo, filed as Case 1:25-cv-00748-ABA, invokes the Administrative Procedure Act, branding the firings “arbitrary and capricious” and “not in accordance with law.” It also calls them “ultra vires”—beyond legal authority—demanding reinstatement of workers cut since January 20 and an injunction against further non-compliant RIFs.
The states point to Trump’s January 20 hiring freeze and February 11 “Workforce Optimization” executive order as triggers, with OPM’s Charles Ezell directing mass cuts by February 27, often reversed only when critical roles—like nuclear security or bird flu response—were hit.
Critics see Trump fulfilling a campaign vow to shrink government, with appointees like Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the mix. But the states argue the rushed execution has backfired—some agencies rehired workers after realizing their necessity, exposing the “arbitrariness” of the purge.
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They seek a court order within 48 hours to halt terminations and detail every firing, warning of “irreparable injury” without action.
The administration hasn’t responded in court yet, but the clash pits Trump’s downsizing agenda against blue-leaning states crying foul over process and pain.
With agencies like Commerce and Defense still planning cuts—5,400 at DoD alone—the fight could reshape the federal workforce, and state budgets, for years. For now, the gavel looms over a policy that’s already left thousands jobless and states reeling.
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