A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by the Trump administration to halt a lower court’s decision that requires multiple government agencies to reinstate thousands of employees who were dismissed last month.
In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the administration’s request to suspend U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s March 13 ruling, which ordered the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Treasury to immediately rehire probationary employees who had been terminated around February 13.
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Judges Barry Silverman and Ana de Alba, appointed by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, upheld the lower court’s injunction, arguing that the Trump administration failed to prove it was likely to succeed on appeal or that complying with the ruling would cause irreparable harm.
The majority opinion stated that the administration had not shown a strong chance of overturning the district court’s findings, which suggested that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) improperly directed federal agencies to terminate probationary employees in violation of established Reduction in Force (RIF) procedures.
The plaintiffs, which include federal employee unions, successfully demonstrated tangible harm caused by the dismissals, the judges added.
However, Judge Bridget Bade, a Trump appointee, dissented, questioning whether the unions had legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place. She argued that the government was likely to prevail on appeal because the district court lacked jurisdiction to issue the injunction.
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Bade further contended that reinstating the dismissed employees wouldn’t necessarily remedy the situation, as agencies could reassign them to different roles or still legally terminate them in the future. She also challenged the lower court’s authority to dictate personnel decisions within federal agencies.
White House Blasts Ruling, Defends Executive Authority
The Trump administration strongly opposed Judge Alsup’s initial ruling, with the White House criticizing it as an overreach of judicial power.
“The President has the authority to manage the executive branch, and an individual district court judge cannot interfere with that constitutional authority,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to the decision.
“If a judge wants control over executive hiring and firing decisions, they should run for president themselves,” she added.
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Government lawyers argued that the six federal agencies involved, not the Office of Personnel Management, made the final decisions to let go of employees who had been working for less than a year.
The administration framed the terminations as part of its broader effort to reduce the size of the federal workforce, insisting that agencies acted lawfully in carrying out the dismissals.
With the Ninth Circuit’s ruling keeping the lower court’s injunction intact, the Trump administration now faces pressure to comply with reinstatement orders—or take the case to the Supreme Court in an effort to overturn the decision .
