The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a ruling from a federal judge in California that had ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of fired federal workers who had been on probationary status.
The court’s brief order said the nonprofit groups that had sued to challenge the dismissals had not suffered the sort of injury that gave them standing to sue.
The practical consequences of the ruling may be limited, as another trial judge’s ruling requiring the reinstatement of many of the same workers remains in place.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, but she gave no reasons. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the court should not have ruled on such an important issue in the context of an emergency application.
The order was the latest administration victory in the Supreme Court in a case arising from President Trump’s recent blitz of executive orders. Like others, though, it was technical and tentative. The justices said their order would remain in place while the case moved forward.
The case concerned a preliminary injunction issued last month by a federal judge in California that ordered the administration to reinstate more than 16,000 probationary employees it had fired from the Pentagon, the Treasury, and the Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs and Interior Departments.