WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected challenges to the Trump administration‘s mass firing of new federal workers.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices set aside a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco, who ordered the administration to “immediately” rehire 16,000 probationary employees across six departments of the government.
In a brief order, the high court said the judge improperly based his ruling on complaints from nine nonprofit groups who said they would be affected by the cutbacks in staffing.
“But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing,” the court said.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have denied the administration’s appeal. The decision is the third in the past week to overturn a judge’s ruling at the behest of the Trump administration.
Trump’s lawyers argued that judges do not have the authority to second-guess the management of federal agencies.
“This Court should not allow a single district court to … seize control over reviewing federal personnel decisions,” then-acting Solicitor Gen. Sarah Harris said in her appeal.
The mass layoffs ordered by the Trump administration have mostly gone unchallenged in the courts because of the civil service laws.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gave federal employees the right to file complaints with administrative agencies inside the government. But the Supreme Court said that meant they may not sue directly before an independent federal judge.
As a result, several lawsuits brought by employees unions were dismissed in February.
But on March 13, Alsup ordered the government to “immediately” rehire 16,000 probation employees who were dismissed in February.
He relied on a different theory. He said a group of nonprofits that represent veterans, farmers, outdoor advocates and others had standing to sue because the staff cutbacks would hurt them.
And he said Trump’s Office of Personnel Management violated the law by ordering the mass firing of probationary employees.
His order told the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and the Treasury they must reinstate their fired employees.
When the 9th Circuit Court refused to lift that order, Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court.
