A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees fired last month from a half dozen federal agencies.

The U.S. is "not an autocracy," Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in her ruling. "It is a system of checks and balances."

California District Court Judge William Alsup said the Trump administration had “unlawfully” conducted a mass firing of probationary workers – typically employees who have been in a job for two years or less – through a decree made by the Office of Personnel Management.