Courage and the courts

Early wins point to the administration’s lawlessness and our power to stop it

Dear civil servant,

Every day there is fresh bad news out of Washington. DOGE’s dismantling of our government — its disregard for laws, civility and basic decency — is staggering. We’ve particularly been grieving the harm caused to you and to the people you have served both here in America and around the world. As DOGE’s dismemberment of federal agencies continues, we wonder what will be the next critical government service to fall. There is good reason to be very, deeply concerned about the fate of our country. But for the first time in what feels like a long time, we also started to feel a tiny glimmer of something different: hope.

First, let's consider that the courts are affirming what we have all known to be true: This administration’s actions to destroy the civil service and the institutions that Congress created and that you serve are illegal, plain and simple. And it is clear the administration has taken notice.

In this letter, we’ll provide some updates on federal employment matters; cover recent wins and newly-filed lawsuits that fight back against these illegal acts; and look to the damage this administration has already caused and the fight to come.

Federal employment resources

We get frequent questions (understandably!) from civil servants looking to better understand their rights and benefits, now that both are under siege. Below are a number of resources that federal employees can consult to get a better picture of their own situation.

On retirement benefits: Some employees have considered voluntarily resigning out of the fear that being fired would jeopardize retirement benefits — but this is not the case for the vast majority of feds!

On the “Fork” Offer: Federal labor unions sued to block the “Fork in the Road” offer that we wrote about last week, questioning whether it would be honored and arguing it violated the law. A judge agreed to stop — for now — the deferred resignation program from being implemented.

On eligibility for unemployment: When the “Fork” offer was still on the table, Washington Post reporters answered questions from readers, including whether people who accepted the offer would be eligible for unemployment benefits where they lived. (Answer: for many people, it’s unlikely.)

On the rights of probationary employees: Yes, probationary employees have fewer employment protections than non-probationary employees — but that doesn’t mean there are none. Check out Just Security’s FAQ page for more.

Additional resources:

• The Federal Workers Rights blog maintained by the law firm James & Hoffman.

• Protect Democracy’s updated webpage with resources for civil servants.

• Webinars on federal employee rights from the Partnership for Public Service.

• Stay up-to-date on the administration’s many, many early moves with this New York Times tracker.

• Senator Tim Kaine’s resources page for federal workers includes a kind statement that is worth a read. Representative Jamie Raskin’s resource page is here, as is a recording from his town hall focused on federal workers.

---

Fighting back and early wins

This administration and its allies were open about their “shock and awe” strategy to overwhelm people to a point where fighting back to defend the rule of law would begin to feel futile. Is what is happening to our democracy overwhelming? Absolutely. But is fighting back futile? Has the battle already been lost? Absolutely not.

Federal employees, unions, nonprofits, and other organizations are filing lawsuits — some seeking to immediately stop the administration’s lawlessness — and often, they are winning.

These efforts to defend our democracy are critical on their own terms, but they are also essential to giving us all the hope that motivates us to continue the fight.

When Trump tried to put thousands of USAID workers on leave, the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees sued to stop it. Last Friday, February 7, a federal judge (himself appointed by Trump) hit pause, citing the real harm that the move could cause workers abroad.

FBI agents who worked on cases related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the criminal investigations of Trump filed lawsuits to block the Justice Department from publicly releasing a list of agents who worked on the cases. Last week, the Justice Department agreed to keep the list confidential.

A group of state attorneys general sued to stop a new policy at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that would have caused major funding cuts to critical healthcare and research — at hospitals and research facilities. Within hours of filing suit, a judge had halted the new policy until a hearing on its lawfulness could be held.

On February 4, the nonprofit advocacy group Doctors for America filed a lawsuit against OPM and various public health-related agencies who had removed key webpages and data in response to Trump’s recent executive order on gender. These webpages included, among other topics, information related to HIV, reproductive care, and health risks to young people. On February 11, a federal judge granted the nonprofit’s request for a temporary restraining order, directing the administration to restore access to this public information.

Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel (which, among other things, protects federal whistleblowers who report alleged corruption and lawlessness and waste within government) was fired on Friday night. Within hours of filing suit to challenge his firing, a judge reinstated him, pending a hearing on the lawfulness of his termination. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox similarly challenged her removal.

Even that strange new “HR@opm.gov” address that has been emailing you has been challenged in court — there, based on the potential privacy issues surrounding an unknown system handling communications that may contain private information. Though the judge denied the request for a temporary restraining order, the lawsuit continues.

Multiple lawsuits were filed last week to stop DOGE’s access to highly sensitive data at the Treasury Department (1, 2) and the Department of Labor, and judges in those cases all agreed to pause or restrict in some way DOGE’s ability to access or use that data (1, 2, 3). And new cases are being filed at a rapid pace. Our colleagues at Protect Democracy filed suit on February 10 to stop DOGE representatives’ access to highly sensitive databases at three agencies: the Treasury Department, Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Education. As lead counsel Kristy Parker put it: “We’re watching in real time as unvetted Trump cronies break the law to get access to Americans’ most sensitive and personal data. Their goal is to snoop on vast amounts of Americans’ data and try to use what they find to enrich themselves, reward their allies, and punish their critics.” Days ago, the National Treasury Employees (NTEU) sued to stop the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

And while the administration has tried to move quickly to chip away at the civil service with freezes, firings, and “fork” offers, we have also kept our eye on a key component of their long-game — stripping employment protections from large swaths of the civil service by creating a new category of employee: Schedule P/C (the newer model of Schedule F). Here at Protect Democracy, we filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of the Government Accountability Project and NARFE challenging this scheme to transform the civil service into an army of loyalists. If Schedule P/C is allowed to take effect, the results will be far-reaching; many likely to be affected have also sued (1, 2, 3) to stop the administration from ignoring the law.

These lawsuits are a handful of the challenges to the administration’s acts; Just Security has a comprehensive tracker for anyone interested in a deeper dive. Of course, the fight is not just in court — nor can it be. People inside the federal government are fighting back and speaking out. The USAID Inspector General just released a scathing report detailing the effects of the administration’s attacks, pulling no punches with sections like “Recent Directives Have Curtailed USAID's Ability to Vet Humanitarian Assistance Awards for Potential Terrorist Ties and Monitor Aid Deliveries in High-Risk Environments.”

Every day, civil servants are mobilizing, protesting, and unionizing at rapid speed in an attempt to hold the line against the dismantling of the government.

---

Relevant reading:

• Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Yes. And You Can Too, by Sherrilyn Ifill

• The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump, by M. Gessen

This publication should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Protect Democracy. This publication also contains hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Protect Democracy does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.