Supreme Court halts lower court order to rehire at 6 agencies

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Apr 8, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday paused an order from a federal judge in California that had required the Trump administration to reinstate 16,000 fired probationary federal workers at six agencies.

In an unsigned 7-2 order, the justices wrote that the national nonprofits who brought the case — and served as the basis of the nationwide injunction to reinstate federal employees — likely did not have the legal right to bring the case.

The ruling means the Trump administration can keep the employees fired from half a dozen agencies, including the Agriculture Department, Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department, while the case plays out before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

A federal judge in Maryland, in a separate challenge to the firings, has ordered the administration to keep fired federal workers from 19 states and the District of Columbia on paid administrative leave while that case plays out. That order is still in effect.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from Tuesday’s order in the California case. Jackson noted that she would not have granted the Trump administration’s application because the departments involved “have not demonstrated urgency” that would justify the high court to step in.

The coalition of labor unions and nonprofits who brought the case, in a statement Tuesday, called the Supreme Court’s ruling “deeply disappointing” but “only a momentary pause in our efforts.”

“Despite this setback, our coalition remains unwavering in fighting for these workers who were wronged by the administration, and in protecting the freedoms of the American people. This battle is far from over,” the group said in a statement.

The lawsuit in the case is one of several brought in response to the mass firings of federal workers in February. The firings were one part of President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal workforce and federal government more broadly without the help of Congress.

More than a dozen local and national unions, as well as nonprofits and Washington state, sued over the firings in February, arguing that they would harm government services and their revenue.

They argued that the Office of Personnel Management exceeded its legal authority by ordering that federal agencies terminate probationary employees en masse.

Judge William Alsup for the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California agreed and ordered that the federal government reinstate 16,000 fired probationary employees across the six agencies.

The Trump administration then asked for a pause from the 9th Circuit, which denied the request, before asking the justices to step in. In the application to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration argued that the nonprofits sought to “hijack” the employment relationship between the federal government and its employees.

“This Court should stop the ongoing assault on the constitutional structure before further damage is wrought,” the application said.

The case is OPM, et al. v. AFGE, et al.