The president asked the high court to intervene after a lower court judge ordered the administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers.
The Supreme Court on April 8 blocked a lower court order that mandated the Trump administration to return to work thousands of federal employees who were let go in mass firings meant to downsize the federal 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.
In response, the Supreme Court made a narrow determination focused on the right, or standing, of several nonprofit associations to sue over the firings. The high court’s order will keep probationary employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now.
The lower court “injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case,” the unsigned order said. “But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing.”
The justices addressed the administration’s emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal district judge in California ordering 16,000 probationary employees at six federal agencies to be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didn’t follow federal law.
Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing that they would have denied the Trump administration’s petition to overturn 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 as needed to compel the Supreme Court to intervene.
A group of unions that are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to fire the workers argued that other courts have allowed federal employees to be reinstated or have 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,” their 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.”
