A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered six federal agencies to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were summarily fired or laid off last month, some of them for cause, marking perhaps the most significant stand by a federal court to date in the face of Trump and Elon Musk's mass-layoff efforts.

US District Judge William Alsup, the same SF-based federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton who oversaw the corporate criminal case against PG&E over several massive wildfires, issued his ruling from the bench at the conclusion of a two-hour hearing Thursday, in a case brought by a group of unions and civic groups.

Judge Alsup ruled that fired probationary employees should be reinstated within a week at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Treasury. Alsup said that while reduction-in-force layoffs may be permitted, they must follow a legal process and what occurred last month was an attempted shortcut or "gimmick" by the Trump/Musk administration's Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

"It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," Alsup said in the hearing, per KPIX. "That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements."

Two weeks ago, Alsup issued a similar ruling, halting the firing of more federal employees by OPM, and saying, "The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency."

OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell was prevented from testifying in the case by the Trump administration, and Alsup said that this was likely because his testimony would reveal the truth of the matter, which is that OPM unlawfully ordered the firings at these other agencies. The government's lawyer attempted to argue that press releases showed that the layoffs were directed by agency heads themselves.

As KPIX reports, an attorney for the unions pointed to a January 20 memo from Ezell suggesting that all probationary employees could be fired during that probationary period without triggering their rights to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) — the body that oversees such administrative appeals which Trump and company have also been attempting to gut.

Alsup further said Thursday that the administration's attempt to "decimate" the MSPB was only a means of ensuring that "these employees will have no recourse" when they are fired.

As NPR reports, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has put out a statement blasting Alsup's ruling, and further stoking a potential constitutional crisis: "A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch. The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch – singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President's agenda. If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves."

Leavitt's statement also says that "The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order."

One of the unions that brought the case, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), issued a statement by its president, Everett Kelley, saying it was pleased with the decision, and the probationary employees "were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public."

Previously: SF Judge Temporarily Blocks Musk and Trump’s Mass Firing of Federal Employees