Judge blocks Trump admin from firing federal probationary workers

A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing federal probationary workers in 19 states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge James Bredar’s order directs 18 federal agencies to “undo” the “purported terminations” of thousands of probationary federal workers before Tuesday, April 8, though the order only applies to states whose attorneys general brought the case.

The states impacted by Wednesday’s ruling include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Bredar’s order is only the latest move by federal courts to hamper Trump’s agenda, though it falls short of the nationwide injunctions used in other instances.

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Since Trump entered office, he has faced a slew of nationwide injunctions to halt actions of his administration. So far in his new term, the courts have hit him with roughly 15 wide-ranging orders, more than former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden received during their entire tenures.

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Some of those who have ordered the Trump administration to halt certain actions are U.S. District Judges James Boasberg, Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, William Alsup, Deborah Boardman, John Coughenour, Paul A. Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, Angel Kelley, Brendan A. Hurson, Royce Lamberth, Joseph Laplante, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich condemned the wave of injunctions as a “judicial coup d’etat” during testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday.

The former lawmaker highlighted that the vast majority of judges filing injunctions or restraining orders against Trump’s executive actions have been appointed by Democrats.

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“If you look at the recent reports from various polling firms, clearly a majority of Americans believe that no single district judge should be able to issue a nationwide injunction,” Gingrich responded.

“Look, my judgment is as a historian. This is clearly a judicial coup d’etat. You don’t have this many different judges issue this many different nationwide injunctions — all of them coming from the same ideological and political background — and just assume it’s all random efforts of justice,” he continued.

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“This is a clear effort to stop the scale of change that President Trump represents,” he added.

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.