A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a halt on the Trump administration’s ability to fire thousands of probationary federal employees, becoming the second court in two days to tentatively green-light the ousters.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the courts likely lack jurisdiction over the case. And since the government couldn’t recover the money paid to employees if their firings were reversed later, the administration can boot them now, even as the case develops more.
A district judge previously halted the firings and ordered the employees to continue receiving benefits, but the appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, issued a stay of that lower judge’s action.
The stay remains in place until the appeals court makes a final ruling.
“Having reviewed the record, the district court’s opinion and the parties’ briefing, we agree with the Government that it has satisfied the factors for a stay,” Circuit Judges Allison Rushing and J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote.
Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin dissented, saying the government violated rules governing a reduction in force when it moved to fire tens of thousands of probationary employees.
She said the Democrat-led states that brought the lawsuit to stop the firings had legal standing to sue, since their unemployment rolls will swell and their tax revenue decline. She also said the federal courts were a proper venue to bring the case.
The ruling came a day after the Supreme Court halted another lower court decision from a federal judge in northern California that had likewise ordered fired probationary employees to be rehired.
In that ruling, the high court said the labor unions and activist groups that sued didn’t prove they had legal standing to sue.
“The district court’s injunction 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,” the justices said in an unsigned order.
