The Supreme Court Tuesday paused a lower-court court order that reinstated thousands of probationary federal workers fired by the Trump administration earlier this year.
In granting the Trump administration’s stay application, the court said some of the nonprofit organizations challenging the dismissals lacked standing.
The court’s order came as part of a lawsuit in California filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations challenging the Trump administration’s recent mass firings, which are part of President Donald Trump’s attempt to gut the federal government.
In granting the Trump administration’s stay application, the court said the preliminary injunction issued by District Judge William Alsup, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, was based on claims brought by nonprofit organizations who at the moment lacked standing in the case.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have denied the Trump administration’s stay application.
The Supreme Court said its stay only addressed the claims brought by the nonprofit organizations, meaning the claims brought by unions in the case were not affected.
Other court orders requiring the Trump administration to reinstate fired federal workers remain in effect.
A Maryland judge recently ruled in a lawsuit brought by over a dozen Democratic attorneys general that federal workers in 19 states must be reinstated. However, the Trump administration appealed that order to a federal appeals court.