AG Kaul Wins Temporary Block on Mass Firings of Federal Probationary Employees and Gets Fired Employees Their Jobs Back

MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul issued the following statement after a federal judge in the United States District Court for Maryland on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) for 18 federal agencies, ordering them to stop the illegal mass layoffs of federal probationary employees and to reinstate fired employees by 1:00pm on Monday, March 17, 2025.

Once again, a court has had to step in to stop lawless action from President Trump. With this ruling, his unlawful mass firings have temporarily been reversed and the disruption to the services these employees provide will be limited. We will continue working to ensure that the law is upheld.

The TRO was issued on Thursday and comes after AG Kaul joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general on March 6, 2025, in suing numerous federal agencies for causing irreparable injuries to Wisconsin and the other plaintiff states. The TRO stops the unlawful mass firings, orders the agencies to give those employees their jobs back, and applies to the following 18 federal agencies:

Department of Agriculture

Department of Commerce

Department of Education

Department of Energy

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of Interior

Department of Labor

Department of Transportation

Department of Treasury

Department of Veterans Affairs

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Environmental Protection Agency

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

General Services Administration

Small Business Administration

United States Agency for International Development

To learn more about the original lawsuit, please read here.

AG Kaul was joined by the attorneys general of Maryland, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

View the press release on the DOJ website here.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.