Fell v. Trump

The Trump administration's approach: directing mass terminations across agencies using standardized form letters without individualized performance assessments: fits the functional pattern the law seeks to regulate as a reduction in force, even though each termination was labeled a performance action. The pretext doctrine applies when agencies use the formalities of individual performance terminations to avoid the statutory safeguards (advance notice, competition, re-employment rights) that apply to RIFs; the blanket agency-wide directive and identical form letters suggest a coordinated workforce reduction rather than discrete performance-based decisions. The court must therefore examine whether probationary status permits the government to bypass RIF procedures entirely, or whether the lack of individualization and coordinated nature of these terminations expose them as functional RIFs that nonetheless require statutory compliance.