Suit is the latest of several by Brown, other Democratic attorneys general, to challenge rapid-fire government reductions by White House

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) is the lead attorney in a 20-state lawsuit against the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary federal workers, one of two lawsuits Brown joined Thursday — and one of two dozen since Trump’s swearing-in.

Thursday’s second lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts by eight states, including Maryland, against the Department of Education’s decision to suspend, within warning last month, $600 million in grants that states use to train teachers and place them in hard-to-staff schools.

The federal workers lawsuit is the first one in which Brown serves as the lead attorney general. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court of Maryland, alleges that the firings of tens of thousands of employees, including military veterans, were “unlawful.”

“President [Donald] Trump’s unlawful mass firings of federal workers are a blatant attack on the civil service, throwing thousands of hardworking families into financial turmoil,” Brown said in a statement announcing the suit.

“Instead of following the law and notifying states, his administration blindsided Maryland, forcing us to deal with the devastating economic fallout and social consequences.,” he said of the layoffs. “We won’t stand by while he disrupts lives and undermines our State, which is why I’ve taken legal action to stop these unjustified terminations and protect Marylanders.”

The Maryland suit lists several federal agencies that began to fire employees shortly after Trump was sworn into his second term in office on Jan. 20. The suit says Trump signed an executive order that same day instituting a federal hiring freeze and directing agencies to “submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.”

The lawsuit said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, fired 73 probationary employees and at least another 70 on Feb. 13. Other terminations last month included nearly 2,000 employees at the Department of Energy, at least 2,400 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 100 from the General Services Administration and about 60 from the Department of Education.

Probationary employees have routinely been targeted because they enjoy fewer job protections than other federal workers. Probationary periods can last up to a year in federal service, and apply to longtime workers who got a promotion as well as to new hires.

Brown, who released a video to explain the suit that was joined by 19 other attorneys general, said that more than 800 of the fired federal employees are from Maryland and have applied to the state for unemployment benefits.

The suit has the support of Gov. Wes Moore (D), who said the 160,000 federal jobs in the state are filled by “dedicated patriots who keep us safe, who provide essential services, and whose mission is to serve our people.”

“Our state would be incomplete without their service,” Moore said in a statement Friday. “As our state navigates the worst fiscal crisis in two decades, we cannot retreat from our principles, and we cannot afford to let these actions stand.”

According to the suit, the Trump administration has failed to follow a federal “reductions in force” or RIF statute. Those procedures require federal agencies to provide at least a written notice 60 days ahead of time to affected workers and to states before worker terminations can take placce.

“Where an agency fails to provide such notice, the employees may not be released,” according to the suit.

While the lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s firing of probationary federal employees is the first where Brown has taken the lead, it’s far from his first legal action against the administration. He is one of a number of Democratic attorneys general who have responded with legal challenges to the administration’s rapid-fire cuts and program changes.

Beginning on Jan. 21 — one day after Trump was sworn in to his second term in office — through Friday, Brown’s office has joined other attorney generals in seven lawsuits against the administration, according to press releases posted on his office website . Those suits involved anywhere from eight to 22 other states on issues ranging from the federal funding freeze to Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship to the access to federal data by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service.

Brown has also had a hand in six amicus briefs filed by attorneys general in other groups’ challenges to the White House, three motions filings and 11 memos or joint statements challenging administration actions or giving guidance to citizens on their rights in the face of the administration’s blistering-fast policy changes.

Brown serves as a co-lead on an amicus brief filed Feb. 21 in U.S. District Court of Maryland that challenges two executive orders from the Trump administration dealing with transgender rights: an executive order that says the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and another that orders institutions that receive federal research or education grants to stop gender-affirming care for transgender people.

“They [executive orders] unlawfully discriminate against transgender youth and adults based on their gender identity, and have caused chaos and harm to families across America and interrupted delivery of crucial medical care across the healthcare system,” according to the brief.

The suit filed Friday requests the court to rule that the firing of probationary employees is illegal, identify affected employees, reinstate them and stop future terminations of workers.

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