Access is important. Slate is offering six months of Slate Plus to current and recently laid-off federal government employees. If you or someone you know has been affected, click here to get six months of Slate Plus free.

The government said in a court filing that Charles Ezell, who issued the memos that agencies interpreted as orders to fire thousands of employees, would not appear in court Thursday.

The Justice Department told a federal judge on Tuesday that the acting head of the Office of Personnel Management won’t testify at a hearing later this week in a major case challenging the government’s efforts to cull the federal workforce,

A judge will consider blocking the mass firings of federal workers after 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit.

A federal judge on Wednesday will consider the fate of more than 20,000 government employees fired by the Trump administration. Twenty Democratic attorneys general sued to block the firings last week.

The federal judge who ruled that the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers were illegal says the official who ordered the firings must testify at a hearing this week or face sanctions.