San FranciscoCNN —
A federal judge has ordered half a dozen federal agencies to “immediately” reinstate probationary employees fired last month as part of the Trump administration’s effort to rapidly shrink the federal workforce, calling the effort a “sham.”
The preliminary injunction issued from the bench Thursday by US District Judge William Alsup requires the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury to rehire the employees. The judge said that he might extend the order to cover other federal agencies at a later time
This is exactly what needs to happen. Every government fundamentally runs on the voluntary cooperation of the people involved. Every government is susceptible to a breakdown of that cooperation. “Or what?” is not the biting political analysis you think it is.
But I’ll spell it out. The administration will comply with the order or they’ll be found in contempt. If they’re found to be in contempt, they’ll either comply with the remedies, or we’ll have ourselves a proper constitutional breakdown.
The point is that it’s all on the record, black and white, in public. If things really go wrong it is critically important that every media outlet, and every civic institution can point to these public facts so that it is abundantly clear that the administration has become lawless.
It would be much worse if the courts were already so submissive to the will of the executive that they won’t even rule against them. Then maga would get to continue doing what they’re doing with a pretense of legitimacy, and it would be many times harder to muster public resistance.
Without consequences, there is no law.