On Wednesday, a federal appeals court stayed a lower court ruling ordering the government to rehire approximately 24,000 probationary employees.
“The Government is likely to succeed in showing the district court lacked jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims,” the 2-1 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, staying a previous order to rehire the workers.
The panel stated that it would pause the ruling until it heard the government’s full appeal. The decision effectively ends the previous injunction directing the workers to return to their jobs.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a similar decision, halting a federal judge’s order in California requiring several federal agencies to reinstate approximately 16,000 employees whom the Trump administration had sought to fire.
The 4th Circuit decision involved a broader ruling from a federal judge in Maryland who sided with a coalition of states who claimed the government did not follow proper procedures when firing so many employees.
“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs but provided no advance notice. It claims it was not required to do so because it fired each of the thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons.
“On the record before the Court, this isn’t true,” wrote U.S. District Judge James Bredar in his March 13 decision. “They all got fired. Collectively.”
Trump appointee Allison Jones Rushing and Reagan appointee J. Harvie Wilkinson III were the appeals court judges who ruled in favor of the pause.
The dissenting judge was DeAndrea Benjamin, a Biden appointee. She called Bredar’s decision “well-reasoned” and said states “clearly have standing to challenge the process by which the Government has engaged in mass firings.”
The administration “was legally required to notify the states at least 60 days before any reduction in force.” She wrote, “The government failed to do so.”
The panel has scheduled oral arguments for May 6.