The probationaries’ / union employees’ counsel has done a marvelous job of showing why the able USDC Judge ought not view this as entirely trivial.
This all comes back to Trumpian lawyers arguing that they — and they alone — are allowed to move the goalposts, on federal procedural rules. Not so — here’s the very cogent answer, to the one I mentioned earlier this morning:
…[Trumpian/DOGE] Defendants’ extension request is notable not for what it says, but for what it does not say….
First, the parties negotiated the briefing schedule, which the Court then approved, a schedule that generously accommodated defense counsel’s vacation schedules. And now, Defendants neglect to say why Plaintiffs would agree to only two additional days for Defendants’ reply brief, rather than the requested seven. As Plaintiffs explained, the usual time under this Court’s rules between the completion of briefing and the hearing date is 14 days. Therefore, Plaintiffs offered to agree to an extension that would ensure the motions were fully briefed by August 14, which would be 14 days before the August 28 hearing, but Plaintiffs would not agree to a longer extension that would likely require the hearing date to be continued. Decl. of Eileen B. Goldsmith, ¶¶2-4. Plaintiffs would be prejudiced if the August 28 hearing date is lost due to Defendants’ extension request.
The permanent injunctive relief sought by Plaintiffs in their motion will provide employees adversely affected by OPM’s actions the further and final relief needed to ensure the unlawful terminations challenged in this case do not continue to haunt affected probationary employees in their pursuit of other jobs or unemployment benefits. Every week that passes without permanent relief is compounding these harms. The “press of other business” and counsel’s vacations simply are not sufficient reason to delay completing the briefing and hearing of these cross-motions….
Again, as noted above, if the extension request can be granted without requiring the August 28 hearing to be continued, Plaintiffs would not object….
These government / Trump lawyers are… a sad-sack set of… losers. Out.
नमस्ते
Powerline Lies... 