In a major legal development, the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to go ahead with its plan to terminate 16,000 probationary federal employees across six U.S. government departments. This comes as a surprise to many, especially after a lower court had earlier ordered that these workers be reinstated while legal challenges continued.
Supreme Court Overrules Lower Court Order
The decision was made on Tuesday through a short, unsigned order. The Supreme Court said that the labor unions and nonprofit organizations who challenged the layoffs did not have the legal right—or standing—to bring the case. The order stated that the claims made by these groups were not strong enough to justify their involvement in the case.
Only two justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said they would have stopped the layoffs. However, the majority of the court allowed the Trump administration’s request to proceed with firing the employees.
Who Is Affected by the Firings?
The 16,000 affected employees come from the following departments:
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Defense
- Department of Energy
- Department of the Interior
- Department of the Treasury
These are probationary employees, which means they are still in a trial period. Some are new hires, while others were recently promoted. Unions argue that many of these employees were experienced and crucial to the departments they served.
Unions React Strongly to the Court’s Decision
The coalition of nine labor unions and several nonprofit organizations, who had taken the case to court, expressed deep disappointment after the Supreme Court ruling.
In their argument, the unions said that firing these workers would create major disruptions in important government services. They said departments lost key program directors and skilled employees, creating sudden and harmful gaps in operations.
Despite the setback, the coalition said it would continue to fight against what they described as an unfair move by the Trump administration. “This battle is far from over,” the unions said in a joint statement.
Why Did the Trump Administration Fire Them?
The Trump administration argued that the organizations challenging the layoffs had no right to interfere in the government’s employment decisions. In its appeal, the government called the previous court ruling a “hijack” of the relationship between the government and its employees.
The administration did not give detailed reasons for terminating the employees but argued that federal departments need the freedom to make staffing decisions, especially during a worker’s probation period.
While the employees will not be reinstated immediately, the larger legal case is still ongoing in lower courts. That means there is still a chance that the decision could change in the future if the legal challenge succeeds.
However, for now, the Supreme Court’s ruling is a win for the Trump administration, giving it the green light to continue with the job cuts.