It was unclear, however, whether Alsup’s ruling would do much to stem the Trump administration’s sweeping purge of the federal workforce, as it was limited to agencies directly involved in the case. It was also not clear that the ruling would result in fired probationary employees getting their jobs back.

According toBloomberg Law, “the judge listed the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Science Foundation among the agencies that are barred from engaging in layoffs ordered by OPM.”

Politiconoted that “Alsup stopped short of ordering the agencies to reinstate the fired workers or to halt looming firing,” saying he “doesn’t currently have the authority to do that.”