The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a move to bring back federal workers who were fired by the Trump administration, handing a win to President Donald Trump as he works to downsize the government.
Trump asked the high court to intervene after a lower court judge ordered the administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers to their jobs after they were terminated earlier this year.
Tuesday’s emergency ruling by the Supreme Court, presented to Justice Elena Kagan, is not final and is stayed pending the disposition of an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
“Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically,” the unsigned order said. “In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court.”
The lower court “injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case,” it continued. “But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing.”
The high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now.
Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor wrote that they would have denied the Trump administration’s petition to deny the lower court order.
Although Sotomayor did not explain why she would deny the petition, Jackson wrote that the Trump administration did not provide arguments showing urgency to compel the Supreme Court to intervene.
A group of unions that are challenging the Trump administration’s move to fire the workers argued that other courts have allowed federal employees to be reinstated or blocked related decisions, according to court papers submitted to the Supreme Court earlier this month.
“The Government illegally fired tens of thousands of public servants, significantly degrading crucial services on which the public and members of Respondent organizations rely,” the petition said. “The Government makes no showing of any irreparable harm and just told the district court that it has already substantially complied with the preliminary injunction.”
They also contended that the administration was incorrect in arguing “that no one can challenge the illegal mass firing of federal employees” by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which effectively is the federal government’s human resources arm, and attempted to refute claims that “the only way to challenge termination of federal employees is by individual employee claims” before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Trump administration lawyers submitted their appeal to the Supreme Court after a San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court judge granted the unions’ request to have the government take back thousands of probationary workers in the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, and Treasury.
In part, the Trump administration argued that courts lack the authority to block “federal workplace reforms at the behest of anyone who wishes to retain particular levels of general government services.”
The administration has said 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 on behalf of the administration.
A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
