A federal appeals court in a 2-1 decision Monday declined to immediately block a judge’s order that the Trump administration reinstate fired probationary employees at six federal agencies.
The new ruling, which does not address the legality of the firings, refuses the administration’s request for an administrative stay temporarily freezing the ruling until the next stage of the appeal.
“Given that the district court found that the employees were wrongfully terminated and ordered an immediate return to the status quo ante, an administrative stay of the district court’s order would not preserve the status quo,” the court wrote in its ruling. “It would do just the opposite — it would disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Bridget Bade, a Trump appointee, dissented from her two Democratic-appointed colleagues. Bade warned of a “potential whiplash effect” where the employees rehired under the judge’s order could be fired again.
“Plaintiffs do not contest these assertions. They argue that government services upon which they and their organizational members rely have been thrown into chaos by the terminations and that they will continue to be injured by the government’s inability to render services,” wrote Bade.
“But Plaintiffs offer no reason to believe that immediate offers of reinstatement would cure these harms,” the judge continued. “Instead, the administrative undertaking of immediately reinstating potentially thousands of employees would likely draw (already depleted) agency resources away from their designated service functions.”
The Trump administration has moved rapidly to reshape the federal bureaucracy, including by firing thousands of federal employees in their probationary period, which typically extends for the first year or two someone is in a role.
The administration appealed after U.S. District Judge William Alsup, an appointee of former President Clinton who serves in San Francisco, last week ordered officials to reinstate those terminated at six agencies by finding the firings were unlawful. Hours later, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a similar ruling that covered roughly a dozen other agencies.
As part of Monday’s ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that written briefing be concluded by Thursday on the administration’s motion to block Alsup’s ruling pending the full appeal.
