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The decision was a win for the Trump administration, which has been stymied by a series of other court rulings in recent days. The judge said the plaintiffs lacked standing.
- Feb. 12, 2025Updated 7:19 p.m. ET
A federal judge said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal workers could proceed, allowing the White House to advance a key part of its plan to reduce the federal work force through mass payouts.
Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Massachusetts, did not weigh in on the program’s legality. The judge instead ruled that the plaintiffs, which included unions representing federal workers, were not directly affected by the incentive plan, known as “Fork in the Road,” and lacked standing to challenge it.
“The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork directive,” Judge O’Toole wrote, adding that they were “challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees.”
“This is not sufficient” for standing, he wrote in his five-page decision.
The unions challenging the plan had sought a temporary restraining order to block the plan from going forward. In his ruling, Judge O’Toole added that precedent from previous cases showed that the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to consider the unions’ claims.
The suit, filed by the liberal nonprofit group Democracy Forward as well as three government unions — the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees — argued that the offer was unlawful, in part because Congress had not already appropriated the funds needed to compensate the workers who took up the offer.
In a statement, the leader of A.F.G.E., the largest federal employee union, noted that the ruling did not address the legality of the resignation program and said that the union’s lawyers were considering their next steps.
