The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to break a lower court’s hold on President Trump’s mass firing of federal workers across nearly two dozen agencies.
Mr. Trump directed federal agencies in February to undertake a reduction in force to scale back the federal bureaucracy.
Labor unions, local governments and advocacy groups launched a lawsuit nearly three months after the executive order was signed, contesting the federal firings.
A federal district judge in the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order blocking the firings.
The Trump administration asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene. A hearing was set for May 22, one day before the district court’s restraining order is set to expire unless it is extended.
That prompted U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer to come to the high court Friday, asking the justices to pause the temporary restraining order so the federal government can carry out its work under Mr. Trump’s directive while the lower court deals with the legal challenge.
In his filing, Mr. Sauer noted that in 1993, President Clinton ordered federal agencies with more than 100 employees to eliminate at least 4% of the workforce.
He said the district court judge enjoyed 21 federal agencies in a “far-reaching order” and required the feds to turn over sensitive agency documents.
“Neither Congress nor the Executive Branch has ever intended to make federal bureaucrats ’a class with lifetime employment, whether there was work for them to do or not,’” Mr. Sauer wrote. “This Court should stay the district court’s order.”
The request was submitted to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee.
The case is Donald J. Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees.
