A pair of federal judges ruled in separate cases on Thursday that the Trump administration must reinstate thousands of the federal workers it fired in recent days as part of a large-scale government purge that a growing number of court decisions have deemed unlawful.

Thursday’s rulings came from Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and they were described as “the most significant blow yet” to President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s effort to gut federal agencies.

“The sheer number of employees that were terminated in a matter of days belies any argument that these terminations were due to the employees’ individual unsatisfactory performance or conduct,” Bredar, an Obama appointee, wrote in his ruling, which applied to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other departments.

Bredar acknowledged that compliance with his order to reinstate thousands of probationary federal employees would be difficult for the Trump administration, which is expected to appeal the decision as it continues its onslaught against government departments, most recently the Department of Education.

“When, as is likely the case here, the government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task,” Bredar wrote.

The Maryland judge’s decision came shortly after Alsup expanded a temporary restraining order against the termination of workers at a number of departments, including Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, ruling that the firings were illegally ordered by the Office of Personnel Management—which has been overtaken by Musk lackeys.

“It is 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,” said Alsup, a Clinton appointee. The Trump administration is also expected to appeal Alsup’s ruling.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement Thursday that it is “pleased” with Alsup’s order, calling it a win for “probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public.”

“We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do,” Kelley added, “and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back.”

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