WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an order for the Trump administration to return to work thousands of federal employees who were let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government.
The justices acted in the administration’s emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California ordering that 16,000 probationary employees be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didn’t follow federal law.
The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge’s order in place.
A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. But that order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration.
The Justice Department is separately appealing the Maryland order.
At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director. He ordered rehiring at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.
His order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations that argued they’d be affected by the reduced manpower.
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Alsup, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations by firing probationary workers with fewer legal protections.
He said he was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.
The administration has insisted that the agencies themselves directed the firings and they “have since decided to stand by those terminations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.