Supreme Court’s order allowing mass firings of federal workers

Well, government employees and other fellow citizens, I’ve tried without success to find legal experts’ analysis of the court’s ruling on Tuesday allowing the Trump administration to cut the federal workforce and dismantle federal agencies.

“The case represents a key test of the extent of President Trump’s power to reorganize the government without input from Congress,” says The New York Times. “The justices’ order is technically only temporary, guiding how the administration can proceed while the challenge to Mr. Trump’s plans continues. But in practice, it means he is free to pursue his restructuring plans, even if judges later determine that they exceed presidential power.”

The order lifts a district court’s ruling — and appeals court’s agreement — that blocked mass layoffs. In a brief unsigned opinion, the majority said that, in its view, the Trump administration is likely to prevail in its argument that Trump’s executive order and a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management intended to implement the executive order are legal. 

Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her concurrence, “The plans themselves are not before this court, at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law.”

“For some reason, this court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation,” Jackson wrote. “In my view, this decision is not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”

During his first term, Trump sought congressional approval to mandate similar layoffs, NPR says. Congress rejected his plan, and this time, Trump didn’t seek approval.

Groups challenging the layoffs in court argued that without the temporary restraint “there w[ould] be no way to unscramble the egg” if they eventually won the larger case in the lower court. They said that without the temporary block to the federal layoffs, “critical government services would be lost … there [would] be no way to go back in time to restore those agencies, functions, and services.”

Among the affected agencies are the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Interior, State, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs. It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration and EPA, says The Associated Press.