Appeals Court Grants Trump a Stay, Can Resume Firing Probationary Employees
The judges do not think the attorney generals who brought the case lack the legal standing to make a move.
A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Virginia, granted President Donald Trump’s administration a stay regarding the firing of probationary government employees.
The vote was 2-1.
This means the administration can resume the firings.
The Court of Appeals wrote:
Having reviewed the record, the district court’s opinion, and the parties’ briefing, we agree with the Government that it has satisfied the factors for a stay under Nken v Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 426 (2009). The Government is likely to succeed in showing the district court lacked jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims, and the Government is unlikely to recover the funds disbursed to reinstated probationary employees. Cf. Dep’t of Educ. v. California, No. 24A910, 2025 WL 1008354, at *1 (U.S. Apr. 4, 2025) (per curiam). The Supreme Court has stayed a similar preliminary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. See OPM v. AFGE, No. 24A904, 2025 WL 1035208, at *1 (U.S. Apr. 8, 2025) (mem.). We therefore grant the Government’s motion for a stay of the preliminary injunction pending this appeal. The Clerk will set an expedited briefing schedule.
In other words, the judges do not think the attorney generals who brought the case lack the legal standing to make a move and that the appeals should go through an employment process, not the federal court system.
Washington, D.C., and 19 states sued the Trump administration, claiming the agencies lied to them about the firings being related to their work performance and did not give them a 60-day notice.
On April 1, U.S. District Judge James Bredar ordered the administration to stop firing the employees.
The administration appealed, asking for a stay of the preliminary injunction pending the appeal.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted Trump a similar stay in a case out of California regarding the firing of federal employees.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled the administration could not fire the workers.
The administration appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Officials asked SCOTUS for an emergency stay on the Northern District of California’s ruling pending the disposition of the appeal in the Ninth Circuit.
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Comments
It sucks for the probationary employees but they can be terminated. The constraints on the Executive firing longer term employees limit the flexibility to reduce # in any other way at present. No whining about a machete used instead of a more precision, scalpel approach when that approach is, as a practical matter, not available.
If only judges were probationary to and subject to firing within a defined period of time.
From the by-line “The judges do not think the attorney generals who brought the case lack the legal standing to make a move.” Therefore the Attorney General HAVE the standing according to the Judges. From the posted decesion “The Government is likely to succeed in showing the district court lacked jurisdiction …” Seems like a contradiction.
The AGs could have legal standing but chosen the wrong venue maybe? I admit I found the phrasing problematic too..
I chalked it up to LI’s perennial aversion to bothering to proofread.
Article II of the Constitution gives the POTUS the authority to make these decisions re: executive branch. Not the judicial branch, at any level.
That’s my take on the whole thing. MAGA.
Please correct a couple typos:
Article headline “The judges do not think the attorney generals who brought the case lack the legal standing to make a move.” and in the article “In other words, the judges do not think the attorney generals who brought the case lack the legal standing to make a move …”
the words “do not” should be removed, or “lack” should be replaced with “have”.
Anyway this is great news. The boss is entitled to fire probationary employees. That’s the world all the rest of us live in.
Getting paid handsomely to look for another job. Doesn’t get much better than that unless you’re an absolute r#tard, which may well be the case.