Supreme Court lifts Ninth Circuit order that reinstated federal workers
The Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) a victory, lifting a lower court’s ruling that would have reinstated thousands of jobs at multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The emergency ruling lifts one of two major injunctions against mass firings in the federal government. For now, that second court’s decision remains in effect and thousands of federal employees remain on paid leave and are expected to be rehired.
For this specific case, which was brought to the courts by a group of nonprofits, the Supreme Court in an unsigned emergency ruling lifted the injunction put in place by the Ninth Circuit, on the basis the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to sue the government.
“The district court’s injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine nonprofit-organization plaintiffs in this case. But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing,” the court wrote.
The latest order effectively allows the federal government to continue to release employees, until the matter is fully adjudicated by the federal court system. However, many of the employees represented in this lawsuit are still protected by a Maryland district court’s injunction, thus they will continue to be paid until the court sorts out the DOGE layoffs.
For now, only a limited number of employees at federal agencies have returned to work, as many of those fired were deemed necessary for the function of critical services. The specifics on who was fired and from where remain largely unclear to the public, given the recency of the staff purges.
Two justices dissent
The appeal from the Trump administration was presented to Justice Elena Kagan, who brought it before the court. As is typical with emergency orders, no official vote was tallied. However, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Sotomayor did not offer an explanation for why she would have denied the federal government’s application to lift the injunction, while Jackson said the Trump administration had failed to demonstrate the "urgency" necessary for an emergency ruling.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.