JACKSON, Wyo. – On Monday, March 24, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to halt a ruling ordering the rehiring of thousands of federal workers let go in recent mass firings.
The layoffs impacted federal agencies across the country, including the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service.
President Trump’s emergency appeal is in response to a March 13 ruling from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ordered the federal government immediately rehire probationary workers terminated at six federal agencies. The appeal argues that the California judge can’t force the executive branch to rehire over 16,000 probationary employees that were, in the administration’s argument, “lawfully” laid off.
According to President Trump, the ruling “hijack[s] the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce. And…the court’s extraordinary reinstatement order violates the separation of powers, arrogating to a single district court the Executive Branch’s powers of personnel management on the flimsiest of grounds and the hastiest of timelines. That is no way to run a government.”
A virtual roundtable with U.S. senators and public lands employees fired in President Trump’s staffing cuts suggested that civil servant reductions would lead to an “alarming” state of public lands and visitor experience and safety.
Buckrail will continue to report on this story as updates become available.
