Trump asks the justices to lift the judge’s order stopping mass federal layoffs
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that the order by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has “caused mass confusion throughout the Executive Branch.” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that the order by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has “caused mass confusion throughout the Executive Branch.” “Neither Congress nor the Executive Branch has ever intended to make federal bureaucrats ‘a class with lifetime employment, whether there was work for them to do or not,'” Sauer wrote.
According to law professor Stephen Vladeck, who closely tracks emergency applications at the Supreme Court, this was the Trump administration’s 15th request for emergency relief in the 16 weeks since Trump’s second inauguration. Yesterday, the justices heard arguments in another Trump request for emergency relief. The justices were asked to partially block three federal judge’s orders that prevent the government from enforcing Trump’s executive order of January 20, ending birthright citizenship. The dispute in this case started after President Donald Trump issued a February executive order instructing federal agencies “to promptly undertake preparations for large-scale reductions (RIFs), in accordance with applicable law.”
Illston issued on May 9, a temporary restraining orders that prohibited the Trump Administration from planning any RIFs or proceeding with any existing RIFs. She also ordered the administration to give the plaintiffs documents related to RIFs. (Illston, Sauer noted that she had “temporarily paused”, the disclosure requirement. However, he added that if she so chose, “she could reinstate that order as soon as next week.”)
The Trump Administration went to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit to ask it to pause Illston’s order while they appealed. The court of appeals has set a briefing date for the government’s request to stay the TRO. This will be May 22, the day before it expires. Sauer, urging the court to suspend Illston’s injunction while the government appeals in lower courts, stressed that Illston “entered a national injunction which governs the practices of 21 federal agencies including 11 Cabinet-level organizations and grants universal relief far beyond anything necessary to remedy the parties’ putative injury.” He told the justices the order was “defective” and that it “suffers multiple fatal flaws”. Federal law, he argued, prohibits plaintiffs from directly contesting the RIFs before federal courts. They cannot “end-run around this prohibition” by asking a federal court to pause the implementation of Trump’s Executive Order and the OMB/OPM Memo. Sauer said that the justices should intervene as Illston’s orders have caused “ongoing and serious harm” to government. Sauer asked for an administrative stay, which would temporarily halt Illston’s orders while the justices consider the government request. “Every day that the district court’s order remains in effect,” he lamented, “a government-wide program to implement agency RIFs is being halted and delayed, maintaining a bloated and inefficient workforce while wasting countless taxpayer dollars.”
Posted in Emergency appeals and applications, Featured
Cases: Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees
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Amy Howe
Trump asks the justices to lift a judge’s order stopping mass federal layoffs
SCOTUSblog
(May. 16, 2025, 5:55 PM),
