Dem
47
GOP
53
At the moment, the legislature isn't doing very much (or anything, really) to push back against the actions of Elon Musk and his Muskovites. The judiciary is taking up the task, however.
Yesterday, Co-Presidents Musk and Donald Trump came out on the short end of two very similar decisions from two different judges on two different coasts. The first ruling came from Judge William Alsup, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The second ruling came from Judge James K. Bredar, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Both rulings said that the Trump administration cannot fire federal employees willy-nilly, just 'cause, and that the affected employees must be reinstated immediately.
Alsup, for his part, was clearly aggravated by the administration's actions. Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, was ordered to be present in the Judge's court yesterday, and did not bother to show. Alsup did not sanction him, but did have his deposition removed from the case, and angrily ordered a different Trumper to appear in Ezell's place. The Judge also described the terminations as "a sham," and accused the Department of Justice of lying in its filings. Bredar was a little less outspoken, but his ruling is actually broader, as it applies to 18 federal departments, as opposed to six for Alsup. Both judges, using very similar language, found that using "performance" as a pretext for the firings was a load of bull cookies, and that the firings appeared to be non-valid.
This, of course, is nowhere near the end of the story. The two judges' orders are just injunctions until they can properly adjudicate the cases, with Alsup's injunction having no set expiration date, and Bredar's set to expire in 14 days (though it could be extended). Eventually, even if they find against the administration, there will be appeals, of course.
That said, Trump and Musk aren't just losing here, they are losing bigly. Even in preliminary rulings (of which there have now been two from each of these judges), the findings are 100% for the plaintiffs, with a significant dollop of Trump-critical commentary thrown in. Not only that, but the judges are using the same language/reasoning (and so too have one or two other judges, like Beryl Howell, who have considered related cases). All of this says to us that the law is very clear here, and that the administration has no leg to stand on. What Trump and Musk have to hope for, at this point, is that the Supreme Court is somehow eager to gut the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. (Z)