NPR News: 04-21-2026 11AM EDT

A federal judge in New York has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were fired across multiple agencies, calling the mass terminations an illegal end-run around civil service protections. The ruling is the latest major development in a chaotic week of news that also includes a third trial for Harvey Weinstein, a new plan to prop up Lake Powell, and a California bill aimed at regulating AI chatbots after a teenager’s suicide.

Judge Orders Reinstatement of Fired Probationary Workers

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) unlawfully directed agencies to fire probationary employees—those typically in their first one to two years on the job—without following the proper reduction-in-force procedures required by law. The judge found that OPM does not have the authority to fire federal workers; that power rests with individual agencies. The order applies to probationary employees at the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture. The administration is expected to appeal. The ruling is a significant legal setback for the White House’s efforts to rapidly shrink the federal workforce, and it raises immediate questions about how agencies will comply with the reinstatement order and