President Trump has scored a second—albeit temporary—win from the Supreme Court in as many days. On Tuesday, the court paused a lower court's ruling that the government must rehire thousands of probationary workers who were dismissed, reports the Washington Post. The 7-2 ruling comes a day after the court allowed the mass deportations of Venezuelans to continue. In Tuesday's case, the justices said the nonprofit groups that sued over the firings did not have the standing to do so, per the New York Times.
The justices acted in the administration's emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California ordering that 16,000 probationary employees be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didn't follow federal law, per the AP. The effect of the high court's order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now, as the case plays out. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson were the two dissenters.
US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director. He ordered rehiring at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior, and the Treasury. His order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations that argued they'd be affected by the reduced manpower.
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A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. But that order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration. The Justice Department is separately appealing the Maryland order. At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number. (More US Supreme Court stories.)
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