Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow mass firings of probationary workers

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to follow through with its attempt to fire thousands of probationary workers across the federal government.

The administration filed an emergency appeal of a March 13 ruling from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ordered the government to immediately rehire probationary workers who had been terminated at six federal agencies.

Alsup’s order required the government to offer reinstatements to about 16,000 federal workers, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the appeal.

Alsup’s ruling let “third parties hijack the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce,” Harris argued.

“That is no way to run a government,” she wrote.

Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ruled that the administration had violated federal law and skirted required procedures when it conducted the mass terminations. A second judge — Baltimore-based U.S. District Judge James Bredar, an appointee of President Barack Obama — similarly found that the terminations of probationary workers was illegal, and he issued an even more sweeping order requiring the workers to be rehired at 18 federal agencies.

The emergency appeal of Alsup’s ruling is part of a nascent effort by the Trump administration to press the Supreme Court to rein in district court judges who have barred dozens of early actions by federal agencies seeking to implement a wave of executive orders by President Donald Trump. Harris described Alsup’s ruling as part of a series of rulings in which district court judges had overstepped their authority.

“This Court should stop the ongoing assault on the constitutional structure before further damage is wrought,” Harris wrote.

Harris submitted the appeal to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency matters originating from California. Kagan is likely to refer the appeal to the full court.