US: Trump administration requests Supreme Court to allow layoffs of federal workers

In an emergency appeal, the administration requested the judges to lift a lower court order temporarily preventing the layoffs quickly. Trump's administration's request for Supreme Court intervention is the latest step in its mission to reduce the federal workforce. The high court has assisted the administration in its mission previously.

Earlier in April, the judges lifted a lower-court order that had halted the mass firings of probationary workers at six Cabinet departments.

The Trump administration's new appeal concerns a broader group of federal employees that several agencies want to terminate under an executive order issued in February calling for "large-scale reductions in force."

Last week, US District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, stopped the administration from carrying out the layoffs, Politico reported.

In his Supreme Court appeal, Solicitor General John Sauer said that Illston improperly encroached on the president's "unquestioned legal authority to plan and carry out" layoffs and reorganise the federal workforce.

Sauer wrote, "The order has brought to a halt numerous in-progress RIFs at more than a dozen federal agencies, compelling the government to retain, at taxpayer expense, thousands of employees whose continuance in federal service is determined by agencies not to be in the government and public interest."

Sauer said Illston's order has blocked about 40 ongoing reductions-in-force at 17 agencies. The largest federal workers' unions in the country, along with several nonprofits and local governments, have challenged Trump's order. Over 20 Democratic-leaning states have filed briefs in support of the workers.

Illston said that the administration is not following strict legal and procedural requirements that apply when the government wants to carry out mass layoffs, including how long an employee has been with an agency.

She further said that a president needs "the cooperation of the legislative branch" when making the kind of large-scale reorganisations that Trump has announced. She recalled that Trump urged Congress to pass a bill to back similar efforts during his first presidency, Politico reported.

Illston's order covered 21 agencies, including, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); the departments of Energy, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, State, Treasury, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the National Labor Relations Board, National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration and AmeriCorps.