The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an order for the Trump administration to return to work thousands of federal employees who were let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government, the Associated Press reports.
The justices acted in the administration’s emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California ordering that 16,000 probationary employees be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because the firings didn’t follow federal law.
The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge’s order in place.
A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more, but that order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration.
The Justice Department is separately appealing the Maryland order.
At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number.
