Washington, March 8 (RHC)-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been ordered to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 workers recently fired by the Trump administration. 

The order from the MSPB — the Merit Systems Protection Board — requires the USDA to return the fired workers to their jobs for 45 days while it investigates whether they were unlawfully terminated. 

The ruling came just days after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from firing MSPB board member Cathy Harris, a Democratic appointee whose term doesn’t expire until 2028.  Harris successfully argued that an MSPB member can only be removed by the president for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]