Judge Lets Trump-Musk 'Fork in the Road' Worker Purge Proceed

After temporarily blocking a deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump's deferred resignation program to purge the federal workforce, a judge on Wednesday allowed the initiative to move forward, ruling that the labor unions challenging it lacked the standing to do so and the court didn't have jurisdiction over their claims.

District Judge George O'Toole Jr. initially halted the program's progress last Thursday, just hours before a deadline for federal workers to decide whether to take the "Fork in the Road" offer seemingly inspired by Elon Musk's Twitter takeover. The billionaire is now chairing Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which the president further empowered last Tuesday.

After a Monday hearing, O'Toole, a Boston-based appointee of former President Bill Clinton, issued Wednesday's five-page order declining to grant the unions' request for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction against the program—under which workers who resign supposedly could be put on leave and continue receiving pay through the end of September.

The case was filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFGE Local 3707, the National Association of Government Employees, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

"Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program."

"Today's ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it's not the end of that fight," AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a Wednesday statement. "AFGE's lawyers are evaluating the decision and assessing next steps."

"Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program," Kelley stressed. "We continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk."

AFSCME president Lee Saunders similarly said that his organization "and our partners remain committed to stopping this illegal attack on the freedoms of public service workers. It is critical that we act swiftly to protect working people against the billionaires who want to take our power and block us from serving our communities. Today may be a step back, but we won't back down."

Government Executive reported Wednesday that the Trump administration "said Monday that 65,000 employees had accepted the deferred resignation offer thus far" and the Office of Personnel Management, the federal human resources agency, "did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding what the new deadline would be."

The outlet also noted that "around the same time that O'Toole issued his decision, a new lawsuit brought in Washington, D.C., by a union for Treasury Department employees asked a judge to declare the deferred resignation program illegal."

Trump and Musk's sweeping attacks on the government since the Republican returned to the White House last month have been partly thwarted by the federal judiciary—leading to concerns that the administration will simply defy court orders.

Even before Wednesday's rare court victory in the "fork" fight, Trump on Tuesday continued his push to overhaul the federal workforce with an executive order directing leaders of nonmilitary federal agencies to develop hiring plans with DOGE.

The unions behind the case before O'Toole also criticized that order. Kelley said that "firing huge numbers of federal employees won't decrease the need for government services... It will just make those services harder or impossible to access for everyday Americans, veterans, and seniors who depend on them."

"Americans just want government to work when they need it," the AFGE leader stressed. "These reckless, unjustified cuts will accomplish only two things: huge tax cuts for Musk and Trump's billionaire buddies and a broken government for the rest of us."

AFSCME's Saunders said: "It is unsurprising that an administration run by billionaires is eliminating oversight and firing dedicated federal workers. They know federal workers protect the public against corporate abuse and won't allow them to use taxpayer dollars as their own personal slush fund."

"So, instead of trying to improve the lives of working people, they are creating a staffing crisis in the public service that hurts children, seniors, people with disabilities, working people, and those most vulnerable," Saunders added. "We won't stand for it, and we will keep fighting back."

This article has been updated with additional comment from AFSCME.