Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Trump on Fired Federal Workers

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided that President Donald Trump does not need to reinstate 16,000 fired probationary federal employees, blocking a lower court’s order.

Last month, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and ordered that personnel at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury be rehired.

That lawsuit was filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations against the Trump administration.

The Clinton-appointed judge said the Trump administration had sidestepped laws and regulations when it fired the probationary workers.

Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies had “reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.”

In an emergency appeal on March 24, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to halt Alsup’s ruling, arguing that a judge can’t force the executive branch to rehire employees.

The Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling Tuesday will keep the 16,000 employees on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority’s decision.

The Trump Justice Department is also appealing a Maryland judge’s order to rehire the  workers, stemming from a separate lawsuit. That order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration.