Firings, buyouts and restructuring across the federal government are hitting the Department of Justice (DOJ), even as it seeks to defend the Trump administration’s actions amid a flurry of lawsuits.

DOJ lawyer Josh Gardner said during a hearing last week that DOJ’s Federal Programs Branch has been “cut in half” since November, even as it has received roughly 80 lawsuits challenging various administration actions.

The cuts have left many Justice Department lawyers seriously outmanned in court. During a hearing over the administration’s directive to fire probationary employees across agencies, just one DOJ lawyer local to San Francisco represented the government while eight lawyers appeared for the plaintiffs.

“Every time I see my friend Chris, he looks sleepier,” joked lawyer Norm Eisen on Friday at another hearing. His group, State Democracy Defenders Action, is among those suing the administration on behalf of fired employees.

Eisen was referencing Christopher Hall, assistant branch director of the Federal Programs Branch.

Justice Department lawyers have signaled fatigue in recent weeks.

Joshua Stueve, a top spokesperson for the DOJ, resigned last week, citing the “hostile and toxic work environment” that has emerged in the agency.

Gardner said he’s been working ever since Trump was sworn in.

“I haven’t had a day off since January 20,” Gardner said during a Friday hearing. “We’re working day and night.”

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Independent agency firing challenges heat up

Battles between the Trump administration and the Democratic appointees he’s firing at various independent agencies are heating up in court.

Just since the weekend, federal judges permanently blocked the firings of U.S. special counsel Hampton Dellinger and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris.

A judge on Wednesday will consider efforts by Trump to remove National Labor Relations Board Chair Gwynne Wilcox, and on Friday another judge will consider the effort to remove Federal Labor Relations Authority Chair Susan Grundmann.

Trump’s firings could rapidly set up a direct challenge to Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the 90-year-old precedent permitting removal protections for independent agency leaders.

The Supreme Court has previously said Humphrey’s Executor doesn’t extend to agencies led by a singular official, as is true of Dellinger’s.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, who ruled in favor of Harris, signaled Monday that her case and others will likely rocket to the Supreme Court.

“That’s where all of us are heading,” the judge quipped.

Catching up with Mexico's SCOTUS lawyers

The Gavel caught up with the Mexican government’s legal team minutes after they exited Supreme Court oral arguments Tuesday, when the justices gravitated toward the American gun industry’s bid to fend off the country’s $10 billion lawsuit.

The case revolves around a 2005 law that........

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