Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that sought to undermine one of the former president’s most critical reform initiatives: the power to remove entrenched federal bureaucrats who obstruct executive authority and resist change.
According to Bloomberg, the high court’s decision, which came over the objections of two dissenting justices, blocked a lower judge’s order that would have forced the reinstatement of employees axed from six government departments.
More from AP:
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.
The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge’s order in place.
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.
Last month, US District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of fired probationary employees in six federal agencies.
The judge blasted the Trump Administration and said he felt “misled by the US Government” as he ordered six federal agencies to offer reinstatement to fired probationary workers.
“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,” Judge Alsup said. “That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements.”
The six government agencies include: VA, DOD, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Agriculture.
President Trump wasted no time slamming the decision by the radical Clinton judge, calling it “absolutely ridiculous” and warning that it poses a “very dangerous” precedent for the country.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, President Trump was asked whether he planned to comply with the ruling. His response was as direct as ever:
“Well, I have nothing to do with that other than I heard about the decision. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous—absolutely. It’s a judge who’s putting himself in the position of the President of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes. And you have that. You’re having more and more of that. It’s a very dangerous thing for our country, and I would suspect that we’re going to have to get a decision from the Supreme Court.”
Trump pointed out the absurdity of the ruling, highlighting how many of the terminated employees were barely showing up for work—if they even existed at all:
“These are people who, in many cases, don’t show up for work. Nobody even knows if they exist. And a judge wants us to pay them, even if they don’t know they exist. If they exist, I don’t think that’s going to be happening, but we’ll have to see. You have to speak to the lawyers about that.”
This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.
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