SCOTUSblog by Amy Howe 4/8/2025
The Supreme Court on Tuesday paused an order by a judge in San Francisco that would require the federal government to reinstate more than 16,000 workers who were fired by six agencies earlier this year. A group of nonprofits challenging the layoffs argued that the terminations by the Office of Personnel Management violated several different parts of the federal law governing administrative agencies. But by an apparent vote of 7-2, the justices nonetheless put the order by Senior U.S. District Judge William Alsup on hold while the challenge to the firings continues, explaining that the nonprofits do not have a legal right, known as standing, to challenge the terminations.
In a brief unsigned order, the court explained that it was not weighing in on the claims by other plaintiffs in the lawsuit – specifically, unions representing government employees, whose claims Alsup did not address because he concluded that he likely did not have the power to hear them. The court also did not weigh in on the propriety of the firings more generally.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor indicated that she would have denied the Trump administration’s request to pause Alsup’s order.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also would have turned down the Trump administration’s plea, because she would not have reached the question of the nonprofits’ standing to sue at this stage of the case.
The layoffs of tens of thousands of probationary employees – that is, employees who have been newly hired for a position, usually within the past year – in February came as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/justices-pause-order-to-reinstate-fired-federal-employees/
