Supreme Court allows Trump to fire federal workers
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The Supreme Court on June 20, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to fire federal workers.
The big picture: The majority decision, which lifts a federal judge's earlier order freezing the cuts, gives the administration power to resume its goal of reshaping and scaling back federal agencies.
- It could lead to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs across government agencies like the Departments of State and Treasury.
Yes, but: The justices noted in the unsigned opinion that they were not ruling on the legality of any specific layoff plans for federal agencies, just that "the Government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful."
Zoom in: Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the conservative justices in the majority ruling.
- "The plans themselves are not before this Court, at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law," Sotomayor wrote.
- "I join the Court's stay because it leaves the District Court free to consider those questions."
The other side: Liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the opinion, calling it the "wrong decision at the wrong moment, especially given what little this Court knows about what is actually happening on the ground."
- She warned that such an executive action "promises mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it."
Context: The decisions stems from an executive order Trump signed in February, directing federal agencies to work with the Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk to make "large-scale" workforce reductions.
- The order, which was met with several lawsuits, was temporarily blocked in May by a federal judge in San Francisco, who ordered the White House to pause the firing of hundreds of thousands of government employees. The judge later extended the pause.
- The Trump administration appealed the ruling, but a divided appeals court upheld the judge's order.
- The administration responded by filing an emergency application with the high court.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
