The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a ruling from a federal judge in California. This has ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of fired federal workers who were on the trial stage.
A simple court order said the nonprofit that sued to challenge the dismissal did not suffer from the injuries that led them to stand in lawsuits.
The practical outcome of the judgment may be limited as there are other judges' judgments demanding the recovery of many of the same workers.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor disagreed, but she gave no reason. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said the court should not rule on such important issues in the context of the emergency application.
The order was the latest administration victory in the Supreme Court, a case that stemmed from the electric shock of President Trump's recent executive order. But like everyone else, it was technical and tentative. The judge said their orders would remain intact while the case progresses.
The lawsuit relates to an interim injunction issued last month by a federal judge in California, which ordered the revival of more than 16,000 probation employees who were fired from the Pentagram, the Treasury Department, Agriculture, Energy, Veterans and the Home Office.
In his ruling, Judge William H. Alsup of the Northern District of California found that “each federal agency has legal authority to hire and fire employees, even on a scale that is subject to certain safeguards.”
However, he said the Personnel Management Bureau, which he said he had adjusted for termination, is not authorized to hire and fire employees from other agencies.
“Even so, that's what happened here – a lot,” he wrote.
A split-up panel of San Francisco's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to suspend Judge Alsup's orders while the government pursued appeals.
In an emergency application calling for the Supreme Court to intervene, representative attorney general Sarah M. Harris wrote that a federal judge has issued more than 40 temporary restraining or injunctions. Many of hers include awards that have been applied nationwide, she said.
She wrote that Judge Alsap's orders were particularly problematic.
“The court's extraordinary reinstatement order violates the separation of power, rogs into a single district court, rogs the enforcement department's personnel management powers on the thinnest grounds and the most rushing timeline,” Harris wrote. “That's not a way of running a government. This court should stop the ongoing attacks on constitutional structures before further damage is created.”
In response, trade unions and nonprofits said they were trying to fire shots. The administration said it should not be allowed to argue that unleashing the fire was a burden as the harm was self-invaded.
“The government complains that the return of more than 16,000 employees across six covered agencies is a “huge” task that hinders the agency's functioning (without providing evidence to support its claim), but the challenger brief said, “The size of the task reflects the scale of the government's own misconduct, which “moves rapidly and breaks things down.”
Another federal judge, James K. Bouder of U.S. District Court in Maryland, ordered the administration to revive federal workers in a case filed last month by 19 states and the District of Columbia. Last week, in a 84-page decision, Judge Bredar once again controlled the state, but the scope of his decision was limited to those living or working in those states, not to the 31 others.
The administration is seeking a stay for that ruling from the US Court of Appeals in the Fourth Circuit, which is expected to take control soon.
