The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a lower court order that would have required the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of federal workers dismissed in sweeping agency layoffs aimed at reducing the size of the federal workforce.
The Tuesday ruling came in response to an emergency appeal by the administration, challenging a California federal judge’s mandate to rehire 16,000 probationary employees across six federal agencies. The judge had found the firings likely violated federal law and ordered the workers reinstated while a broader legal challenge proceeds.
At the core of the high court’s decision was a technical legal issue: whether the nonprofit groups involved in the lawsuit had standing to sue. The justices did not weigh in on the merits of the firings themselves. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying they would have allowed the reinstatement order to remain in effect.
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This marks the third time in less than a week that the Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration in ongoing legal battles with lower courts. In separate cases, the justices have also paused an order reinstating teacher training grants and lifted a freeze on deportations imposed under a rarely used 18th-century law.
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Still, Tuesday’s ruling offers only a partial reprieve for the administration. Due to a separate court case in Maryland, many of the affected employees will remain on paid administrative leave. That lawsuit covers workers from the same six agencies and about a dozen more but applies only in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that joined the suit. The Justice Department is appealing that decision as well.
Plaintiffs in both lawsuits claim at least 24,000 probationary employees have been dismissed since Trump took office, although the administration has not confirmed the figure.
In a statement, the coalition of labor unions and public interest groups behind the lawsuits expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court’s decision but vowed to continue fighting.
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“There is no doubt that thousands of public service employees were unlawfully fired in an effort to cripple federal agencies and the essential programs they provide to millions of Americans,” the coalition said.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who issued the California order, sharply criticized the administration’s handling of the terminations. He found that the Office of Personnel Management had overstepped its authority and directed the mass firings without following proper procedures.
Alsup, a Clinton appointee, noted that many of the employees were given vague reasons for their dismissals, often citing “poor performance” despite recent stellar evaluations. “It is appalling,” he wrote, “that so many were cast aside with no warning, no transparency, and no justice.”
The administration has pushed back, arguing that the agencies themselves initiated the firings and continue to support those decisions. “The agencies have since decided to stand by those terminations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices.
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