The Rachel Maddow Show
'A sham': Federal judge blasts Trump admin on improper firings of federal workers; orders rehiring
Fri, 14 Mar 2025
Rachel Maddow reads from the court transcript in which a federal judge blasts the Trump administration's defense of its firing of thousands of federal workers and orders that the jobs be restored, with some harsh words for Trump's lawyers to boot.
Chapter 1: Why were thousands of federal workers fired by the Trump administration?
Fireworks day today in the news. There's so much to get to. Most importantly, I think, thousands of people fired by Donald Trump are getting their jobs back today because of the first round of proverbial fireworks that went off in a California federal courthouse. And I just, just, just got the transcript of what happened there. Trying all day to get it. Finally got it.
I really want to share this with you. All right, so let me set the scene. Trump administration has sent a lawyer to defend them in this case in federal court in Northern California. But they are refusing to send any officials from the Trump administration to testify in this case, to explain what they have done and to be questioned about it.
So the basis of this case is that the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management and the Trump White House told federal agencies last month, essentially, to fire tens of thousands of people who work for the government, potentially hundreds of thousands of people.
And then after the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management, told the agencies to fire all those people, then all those people got fired. And it really does not seem like that was legal. It has never seemed like that was legal, that the White House would have the authority to make those kinds of mass firings. But again, they won't send anybody to testify about what exactly they did.
So this is from the transcript. So the lawyer who is suing the Trump administration says this. Your Honor, quote, I tend to agree with you on that. And the government, I believe, has tried to frustrate the judge's ability to get at the truth of what happened here, and then set forth sham declarations to a sham declaration. They withdrew it, then substituted another.
That's not the way it works in the U.S. District Court, the judge says. Quote, I'm going to talk to the government about that in a minute. I had expected to have an evidentiary hearing today in which these people would testify. And if they wanted to get your people on the stand, I was going to make that happen too. It would be fair. But instead, we have been frustrated in that.
The judge then says to the lawyer for the plaintiff's quote, I'd like to hear your views on what relief should be issued today. T-O-D-A-Y. Today. The lawyer. Thank you, Your Honor. We are aligned in wanting that to happen as well. He spelled out T-O-D-A-Y.
And so then they have a conversation, the judge and the lawyer for the plaintiffs, the lawyer who's suing the Trump administration on behalf of the fired employees. And they talk about what the fired employees who are suing the Trump administration, what they're seeking from the judge today, the kind of relief they want.
They say they want a list of everybody who's been fired that haven't been able to get that or even an enumeration from the government of how many people have been fired. They also want people to be reinstated if they have been fired illegally. So they go through all those details. Then it's time for the Trump administration lawyer to make his side of the case.
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Chapter 2: What were the legal arguments presented against the Trump administration?
California Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat, is planning town halls in three different Republican districts next weekend. It would not be fair to say that no Republicans in Congress are willing to go against their party's advice and hold tone hells in person. They are occasionally still happening.
For example, North Carolina tonight, Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards has been answering questions and facing the music from his constituents in Asheville.
And then... And then there would be another process to evaluate where we're at there. One more? I feel like this is not productive with everybody yelling at me. I mean, if you want to hear... The question... The questions are coming out of the box one at a time. I'm answering those for you. You're not going to like a lot of them.
And you certainly will have the right in the next election to cast your vote based off of what you hear coming from me now.
Well, at least they like that answer. Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards getting an earful from his constituents in North Carolina tonight, and good on him for doing that. For the most part, when Republicans are willing to do town halls at all, they're only willing to do teletown halls, you know, virtual ones.
Last night, we thought we had found a forthcoming one in California, a Republican who was willing to hold an in-person town hall. Turns out that was actually me totally screwing up. and calling Democratic California Congressman Mike Levin a Republican. 100% my error. And I apologize for that. He is holding a town hall. He is a Democrat. He also holds lots of town halls.
His next one is this weekend for his constituents in San Juan Capistrano. Congressman Levin joins us next. Stay with us. We are expecting a vote tomorrow afternoon on a continuing resolution, essentially to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown that would otherwise happen tomorrow night at midnight.
This evening, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer set off a proverbial Roman candle inside a phone booth.
when he announced that he will vote for the continuing resolution to keep the government funded, this after a furious day of lobbying Democratic senators for them to vote no, to let the Republicans shut down the government if they weren't going to work with Democrats to do anything substantively to change course.
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