The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted a lower court ruling that had ordered President Trump to rehire thousands of fired federal workers, saying the judge had rushed to his decision based on iffy evidence.
The high court’s ruling marks the latest in a string of decisions pushing back on Democrat-appointed judges who have come out aggressively to derail Mr. Trump’s agenda.
In this case U.S. District Judge William Alsup had ruled that the Trump administration illegally ordered the firing of more than 20,000 probationary federal employees. He ordered the administration not just to bring them back on the payroll but to give them their old jobs back.
The justices said Judge Alsup went too far, too fast.
“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 high court said.
Standing is the requirement that a plaintiff show a concrete legal injury before being allowed to pursue a case.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted their disagreement with their colleagues’ decision.
Justice Jackson, in particular, said she would have given the case more time to develop in the lower courts.
Judge Alsup, a Clinton appointee to the U.S. District Court in northern California, had ruled that the Office of Personnel management illegally ordered government agencies to cull their workforce of excess probationary employees in an attempt to cut their staff numbers.
The judge said OPM had no authority to order those cuts.
Trump administration lawyers had said OPM might have prodded the cuts but it didn’t order them. The final decisions were made by each agency, the Department of Justice argued.
