[Source: Reuters]

A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to reinstate nearly 25,000 fired government employees said on Wednesday that he could narrow his ruling to workers based in Washington, D.C., and the 19 mostly Democratic-led states that sued over the mass firings.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar during a hearing in Baltimore, Maryland, said he was concerned that he lacked the power to issue an order affecting states that are not involved in the lawsuit.

“This court has great reluctance to issue a national injunction,” Bredar told a lawyer from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.

“That doesn’t mean the court won’t issue one in this case — you’re going to have to show me it’s essential for remedying any harms that your clients are specifically experiencing.”

Bredar acknowledged that nationwide injunctions have become increasingly controversial and that judges’ powers to issue them are unsettled. The Trump administration and other Republican officials have said that nationwide orders improperly limit the president’s powers.

Bredar extended his March 13 temporary restraining order, which was set to expire on Thursday, until April 1 to give him time to rule on the states’ request to block the mass firings of probationary employees pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

Probationary workers typically have less than a year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal employees.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Eric Hamilton argued that the firings did not amount to illegal layoffs, but said any injunction should be limited to the plaintiff states.

The White House, the Justice Department and the office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, which is leading the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bredar in his March 13 decision had ordered agencies to reinstate about 24,500 fired workers pending further litigation, saying the mass firings appeared to violate regulations governing layoffs of federal employees.

A U.S. appeals court last week declined to pause his ruling, but a Trump-appointed judge on the court’s panel criticized the nationwide scope of the order.

The 18 agencies involved in the case include the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department.

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