Donald Trump’s government has petitioned the US Supreme Court to halt a federal judge’s ruling that reinstated thousands of probationary federal employees who were dismissed as part of the government’s effort to reduce its workforce.
The emergency appeal is the administration’s latest attempt to seek intervention from the nation’s highest court as lower courts temporarily block key aspects of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
In this case, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction requiring six federal agencies to “immediately” reinstate over 16,000 probationary employees.
“The district court’s extraordinarily overbroad remedy is now inflicting ongoing, irreparable harm on the Executive Branch that warrants this Court’s urgent intervention,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris stated in court filings.
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Harris further argued that the ruling by US District Judge William Alsup has forced the government to take on the significant task of reinstating and fully onboarding thousands of employees within days.
The administration has also filed a similar emergency appeal with the federal appeals court in San Francisco, which has been under review since March 14.
“Every additional day the injunction remains in effect is a day that six executive agencies are effectively under the district court’s receivership, necessitating immediate relief from this Court,” Harris asserted.
Alsup’s decision marks a rare victory for federal labor organizations challenging the administration’s workforce reduction efforts.
While other judges declined to intervene in the initial round of firings, Alsup ruled that the Office of Personnel Management acted unlawfully when it directed agencies to terminate probationary employees, most of whom had been on the job for less than a year.
His ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by labor unions and others contesting OPM’s involvement in the dismissals.
The layoffs affected thousands of employees and disrupted several federal agencies, some of which later rehired a portion of the workers.
The administration has primarily targeted probationary employees, as they have fewer job protections and can be removed more easily.
While they generally cannot appeal their dismissals to the Merit Systems Protection Board, exceptions exist if their termination resulted from “partisan political reasons” or “marriage status.”
Harris informed the Supreme Court that “some” of the dismissed employees have filed complaints with the Office of Special Counsel. She also contended that Alsup’s ruling conflicts with the administrative processes established by Congress to handle such terminations.
“Declaring open season on challenges to federal personnel management is especially unsound because Congress has created an entirely different framework for resolving legal challenges to the terminations of federal employees,” Harris wrote.
She further argued that allowing unions to bypass established procedures by taking their claims directly to court “would upend that entire process.”
(CNN)
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