On Tuesday, the Supreme Court paused a district court order blocking the Trump administration from implementing an executive order to reduce the federal workforce, including Department of Health and Human Services employees.
The justices ruled that a May 22 preliminary injunction in the district court for the Northern District of California be stayed pending an appeal or the disposition on a writ of certiorari, an order by a higher court directing a lower court to send up the record of a case for review.
The district court’s injunction was based on the view that the executive order and a memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget implementing the EO was unlawful, justices said. But since the government is likely to succeed in having the executive order and memorandum deemed lawful, the justices granted the application.
The court expressed no view on the legality of the reduction in force order or the reorganization plan because, they said, the plans are not before the court.
Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she agreed with Jackson in that the president cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent with congressional mandate.
“Here, however, the relevant Executive Order directs agencies to plan reorganizations and reductions in force ‘consistent with applicable law,’" Sotomayor said.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The decision allows the government to move forward with staff reductions at 21 agencies and departments, including the departments of Commerce, Health and Human Services, Energy, Treasury and State.
The coalition that brought the case -- which includes labor unions, non-profit organizations, and cities and counties in California, Illinois, Maryland, Texas and Washington -- called the Supreme Court's decision a disappointment, according to ABCNews.
THE LARGER TREND
In April, HHS employees began receiving notices that their jobs had been eliminated, as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping overhaul of government spending.
The move was expected to cut roughly 20,000 jobs. About 10,000 people were to be laid off and another 10,000 would be expected to take early retirement and voluntary separation offers.
In June, fired staffers brought a lawsuit claiming the termination of thousands of federal workers was unlawful due to the use of faulty personnel records.
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org