The US Supreme Court. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday local time blocked a lower court's order requiring the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of fired federal probationary workers.
The conservative-majority top court said the non-profit organizations that filed the case seeking to halt the mass firings lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit. But the ruling is not definitive and the case will continue to be litigated in lower courts.
William Alsup, a district judge in California, had ordered six federal agencies last month to rehire some 16,000 probationary workers who were laid off as part of President Donald Trump's push to slash the size and scope of government.
Alsup said the justification of "poor performance" given for the mass firings was a "sham" and he ordered the departments of the Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior to reinstate fired probationary employees.
"It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," Alsup said.
The Supreme Court, in a temporary victory for the Trump administration, blocked Alsup's order while litigation in the case continues.
The Trump administration challenged Alsup's ruling in an appeals court and the Supreme Court's decision lifts his reinstatement order while the case continues.
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court said the judge's order "was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case.
"But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations' standing," it said.
Two of the three liberal justices on the court - Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson - dissented.
Another federal district court judge has also temporarily blocked mass layoffs of probationary workers at a dozen federal agencies but the case has not yet reached the Supreme Court.
Since returning to the Oval Office in January, Trump has taken an ax to the US government, cutting spending programs and firing tens of thousands of the more than two million employees on the federal payroll.
The Supreme Court decision on probationary workers came one day after the court handed Trump another legal victory, in a case involving his use of an obscure, wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants.
The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a lower court order barring deportations using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, but said migrants must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal.
"We believe this was a massive victory," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
"We firmly believe that the president was well within his constitutional authority, and the Supreme Court made that very clear last night," Leavitt said.
"We called on the Supreme Court to rein in these judges who are acting as judicial activists, not real arbiters of the truth and the law, and that's exactly what we saw the Supreme Court do yesterday," she added.
- AFP
