Off the news: No power to fire, no power to rehire

A federal judge ordered the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Thursday to cancel instructions to fire probationary employees “not identified as mission-critical.” The legal logic was simple: “OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup stated.

Dubbing the OPM memos “illegal,” the court ordered a temporary halt to the firing efforts. But Alsup couldn’t order that the thousands of employees be hired back, by the same logic: The suit named only OPM, and OPM can’t order hirings, either. Employees remain in limbo.