Elon Musk, left, and President Donald Trump, right, speak to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
By Ben Zeisloft February 18, 2025 at 10:00am
President Donald Trump was handed a legal win on Monday when a federal judge ruled against federal employees claiming privacy violations after the administration sent a mass email.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss denied a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Office of Personnel Management from using the “Government-Wide Email System” to contact all federal employees, according to Fox News.
The lawsuit claimed, using the HR@opm.gov email address to contact the federal workforce marked a threat to the security of workers, breaking protocol since the administration failed to issue a Privacy Impact Statement, an argument which Moss rejected.
“Plaintiffs have failed to carry their burden of demonstrating that their .gov email addresses (which reveal their names and, possibly, their places of employment) are at imminent risk of exposure outside the United States government — much less that this risk is a result of OPM’s failure to conduct an adequate PIA,” Moss wrote, per Fox.
Moss added that the arguments rely “on a highly attenuated chain of possibilities.”
The complaint said, federal employees received an email from HR@opm.gov saying that the Office of Personnel Management was testing a “distribution and response list.”
“The goal of these tests is to confirm that an email can be sent and replied to by all government employees,” one of the emails said, according to the lawsuit.
The Office of Personnel Management recently sent another mass email to most of the federal workforce, offering them a “fork in the road” by means of a “deferred resignation.”
Trump officials warned that the new federal workforce would be heavily reformed to emphasize merit and excellence, as well as see changes such a return to five days per week in the office.
Was the privacy of these federal workers violated?
They also hinted at future downsizing of various agencies.
Those uncomfortable with that new arrangement could accept “deferred resignation,” letting them “retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload.”
An exemption from “all applicable in-person work requirements” would meanwhile last through the end of September.
The email described the program as “paid administrative leave.”
Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, has along with Trump emphasized the need to downsize the federal workforce.
That mass email prompted the lawsuit considered by Moss, according to Bloomberg Law.
The outlet noted that some 75,000 workers, representing about 3 percent of the total federal workforce, which exceeds 2.4 million civilians, ultimately took the offer.
The size of the federal government, therefore, fell to 2023 levels.
Ben Zeisloft is the editor of The Republic Sentinel, a conservative news outlet owned and operated by Christians. He is a former staff reporter for The Daily Wire and has written for The Spectator, Campus Reform, and other conservative news outlets. Ben graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with concentrations in business economics and marketing.
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