WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an order for President Donald Trump’s administration to return to work 16,000 probationary federal employees who were let go in mass firings.
The justices acted in the administration’s emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California that the workers be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didn’t follow federal law. It’s the third time in less than a week that the justices have sidedwith the administration in its fight against federal judges whose orders have slowed the president’s agenda.
The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge’s order in place.
A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. But 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.
At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number.
