(The Lion) — Federal judges are striking back against Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attempts to shrink the federal workforce.

A San Francisco judge Thursday ordered six federal agencies to restore thousands of recently hired employees, The Daily Signal reported.

William Alsup, a U.S. District judge, ordered immediate reinstatement of probationary employees at the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury departments. Most were let go in mid February, the Associated Press reported.

Although the government has the right to terminate probationary workers, many had received positive performance reviews shortly before they were terminated, ostensibly for poor performance.

“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

The judge ordered the agencies report back in a week on what they had done to restore the workers, including a list of the individual employees and their current status, AP reported.

Alsup’s action came as part of a lawsuit filed by labor unions and organizations opposing Trump and Musk’s work through DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency.

On Wednesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan gave DOGE three weeks to submit “information and materials regarding agencies, employees, contracts, grants (and) federal funding,” it intends to cut if those agencies work with any of the 14 states that are suing Musk, DOGE and Trump. Since federal agencies work across the states, almost any cuts DOGE makes would be included.

The liberal judge, who presided over the four criminal cases Trump won before the 2024 election, was honoring a request from the Blue states to “identify which agencies Defendants will target next so Plaintiffs can seek preliminary relief and mitigate further harm,” MSNBC reported.

The information could ultimately help Chutkan “decide whether to block DOGE’s operations altogether,” Slay News reported.

Trump, who campaigned on a promise to shrink the size of government and eliminate wasteful spending and programs, said Wednesday he feels “very badly” for people who have lost their jobs, but that many federal workers “don’t work at all.

“When we cut, we want to cut, but we want to cut the people that aren’t working or … not doing a good job,” he said. “We’re keeping the best people.”