Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Nearly half of the country’s attorneys general sued the Trump administration over the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass firings of federal workers.
The AGs accuse the administration of terminating tens of thousands of probationary employees without first following federal regulations, including a 60-day advance notice to affected employees and states.
“These large-scale, indiscriminate firings are not only subjecting the Plaintiff States and communities across the country to chaos. They are also against the law,” the suit filed Thursday says. “Where an agency fails to provide such notice, the employees ‘may not be released.’”
The administration “has run roughshod over” these requirements in the past month, harming the individuals and the states they live in, the AGs argue.
“As a result, many affected employees and their families are struggling to make ends meet—to pay rent, buy groceries, and care for their loved ones,” the complaint states, adding that states are also impacted and are now facing “increased administrative demands related to adjudicating unemployment claims, decreased tax revenues, and increased demands for social services.”
The states are asking the court to require the administration to cease the reductions in force of probationary employees that they have conducted “unlawfully and without notice,” to reinstate any probationary employees who were terminated as part of mass terminations on or after January 20 — President Donald Trump’s first day in office — and to conduct any future layoffs in accordance with applicable laws.
DOGE, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk, has been abruptly and haphazardly laying off workers. In some circumstances, the administration has walked back on its sweeping moves, trying to re-hire critical workers after firing them, including some working to combat bird flu and some working at the National Nuclear Security Administration, prompting calls across party lines for the cost-cutting arm to “slow down.”
After mistakenly axing a U.S. Agency for International Development program aimed at curbing the spread of Ebola, the tech billionaire told Trump’s cabinet: “We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect, but when we make mistakes we’ll fix it very quickly. For example, with USAID one of the things we accidentally cancelled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention.”
New York, Maryland, California and Illinois are among the states suing the administration, including the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Defense, and their secretaries.
“The Trump administration’s illegal mass firings of federal workers are a slap in the face to those who have spent their careers serving our country,” New York Attorney General James said in a statement Thursday. “Thousands of workers across New York and the nation are now struggling to pay rent, put food on the table, and care for their loved ones. Today, I am joining my fellow attorneys general in defending the rights of workers who serve our communities and stopping the chaos and confusion this unjust policy is causing.”
This isn’t the first time Musk has gotten into hot water over mass firings with little notice.
The X owner was sued in a class action lawsuit after he failed to provide a 60-day notice before laying off hundreds of employees in 2022.
