In his decision to reinstate the employees, Judge James K. Bredar of the US District Court in Maryland, said the firings were illegal because they were not preceded by notice to the states that would be impacted. He said that contrary to the Trump administration’s position, the mass firings were not for performance-related reasons and should be considered reductions in force, subject to state notifications and other procedural requirements.
Bredar ordered the agencies, including CISA, to reinstate the fired employees. He stayed the firings for 14 days and signaled he could rule on a permanent injunction that might allow the employees to stay beyond the 14 days and perhaps indefinitely.
CISA document process raises security concerns
It’s unclear why CISA posted its request for fired employees to send a password-protected attachment containing personally identifiable information to a publicly promoted email address. It’s also unclear how the password-protected document process would work. CISA did not respond to CSO’s request for clarification.
