Supreme Court Lifts Order That Would Have Reinstated Probationary Federal Workers

The Supreme Court overrode federal District Court Judge William Alsup’s order which would have reinstated mass-fired federal probationary workers at six agencies.

In response to an emergency appeal by the government, SCOTUS justified this decision on the grounds that non-profit groups involved in bringing the lawsuit do not have legal standing to challenge firings of such workers at the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs.

Alsup had ruled that the Office of Personnel Management illegally directed the firings and had no authority to fire workers at agencies other than itself. He also deemed the impact of the firings on non-profit plaintiffs sufficient to give them standing to sue, a finding SCOTUS explicitly overruled.

SCOTUS did not find similarly about the standing of labor union also involved in bringing the lawsuit. Alsup had already concluded that Congress required labor unions to challenge the firings through other channels.

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