Supreme Court allows Trump administration to take 16,000 workers off federal payroll

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can keep thousands of probationary workers off of the federal payroll as lawsuits challenging the administration's plan to fire them play out in court.

In an unsigned, two-page decision, the Supreme Court staid a preliminary injunction placed on the administration's attempt to remove about 16,000 probationary employees from the payroll. Several unions had filed suit arguing the terminations are illegal, but the Supreme Court said the unions didn't have standing in the case.

"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 Supreme Court wrote. "This order does not address the claims of the other plaintiffs, which did not form the basis of the District Court’s preliminary injunction."

The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California put the preliminary injunction in place, and the Trump administration appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling notes that Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have declined to hear the administration's emergency appeal.

The ruling is not final. It effectively means that the administration can keep the workers off the payroll as lower courts determine whether the plan to terminate them is legal. Similar challenges, and injunctions, remain in place in federal courts in Maryland and elsewhere.