President Donald Trump’s directives for mass firings at multiple agencies will remain on hold, a federal appeals court ruled Friday evening.
The Trump administration had asked the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to freeze a lower court’s order that halted the terminations at more than a dozen agencies.
The new order is a major setback for Trump in his efforts to drastically shrink the federal government. His plans for the sweeping layoffs – known as reductions in force, or RIFs – have been on hold since May 9, after US District Judge Susan Illston ruled that Trump could not do such a dramatic overhaul of federal agencies without congressional authorization.
In its 2-1 opinion, the 9th Circuit panel said the Trump executive order at issue in the case “far exceeds the President’s supervisory powers under the Constitution.”
The majority concluded that the challengers were likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments that the mass layoffs were unlawful and said the administration failed to meet the other factors that would have justified the emergency appellate intervention.
Trump already once asked the Supreme Court to get involved in the case – a request that initially went nowhere – and it is likely the dispute will eventually reach the high court again.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
The case was brought by federal employees unions, local governments and outside groups. They challenged the February executive order that commanded a sweeping restructuring of the federal government, as well as directives issued by the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget to implement Trump’s policy.
Those offices requested agencies submit plans for how they’ll implement Trump’s downsizing directive. The challengers argued that OPM and OMB were getting the final say on the scope of each agency’s layoffs – putting forward evidence that agency proposals for less drastic cuts were being vetoed – making the terminations and reorganizations unlawful. Their lawsuit also targets the involvement of the Department of Government Efficiency in the mass terminations.
Among the agencies covered by Illston’s earlier order blocking the layoffs are nearly every Cabinet-level department, including the departments of Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Interior, Labor, State and Treasury.
On Friday, the 9th Circuit said that while Congress gave agencies the authority to undertake major layoffs, it did not give the president that power.
Writing for the majority, Senior Circuit Judge William Fletcher said, “The kind of reorganization contemplated by the Order has long been subject to Congressional approval.”
Fletcher, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, was joined in the majority by Circuit Judge Lucy Koh, who was put on the appeals court by President Joe Biden. Circuit Judge Consuelo María Callahan, an appointee of President George W. Bush, dissented from the ruling, writing that “the President has the right to direct agencies, and OMB and OPM to guide them, to exercise their statutory authority to lawfully conduct RIFs.”
The coalition of organizations challenging Trump’s directives said in a statement that “We are gratified by the court’s decision today to allow the pause of these harmful actions to endure while our case proceeds.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
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