The Supreme Court has granted permission to the Trump administration to proceed with the termination of 16,000 probationary federal workers across six agencies and departments, overturning a lower court’s order for their reinstatement while legal challenges to the layoffs continue.
The big picture: In an unsigned order, the court stated that the nine labor unions and nonprofit groups that contested the firings lacked standing in the matter.
- Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed a dissenting opinion, indicating that they would have rejected the Trump administration’s request.
Driving the news: The termination had initially been ordered by a federal judge, prompting the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the judge’s order. They argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing and had disrupted the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce.
- The affected employees were from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Department of Treasury.
- The unions had urged the Supreme Court to uphold the district court judge’s order for the workers’ reinstatement, citing the imminent harm that would result from the terminations.
