2nd Judge Orders Trump Administration to Rehire Workers

A second federal judge on Thursday handed down an order requiring President Trump's administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies, slowing down for now the president's dramatic downsizing of the federal government. Both judges separately found legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out and ordered the employees at least temporarily brought back on the job. The Trump administration has already appealed the first ruling, from a US district judge in San Francisco (read more about that here).

Hours after that, in Baltimore, US District Judge James Bredar found that the administration did not follow laws set out for large-scale layoffs, including 60 days' advance notice. Bredar, who was appointed by President Obama, ordered the firings temporarily halted and the workforce returned to the status quo before the layoffs began. He sided with nearly two dozen states that filed a lawsuit alleging the mass firings are illegal and already having an impact on state governments as they try to help the suddenly jobless. The White House did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Bredar's ruling. The judge set a deadline of March 17 at 1pm Eastern for the employees to be reinstated, NBC News reports.

(More Trump administration stories.)