(Bloomberg) – The federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration must continue to comply with the orders of a Maryland judge to temporarily restore 25,000 U.S. agencies to fire employees for at least a week.
Friday orders from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals represent the latest setbacks in the administration to push for the removal of jobs in a so-called probationary situation, where they began to take up their current roles over the past decade or two, depending on the type of position.
The Appeals Court panel denied that the U.S. Department of Justice requested an immediate moratorium on the Baltimore judge’s 14-day recovery order and would withdraw employees who were fired as the legal battle continues to move forward.
The three panels of judges did not address the merits of the fight, saying it was rejecting the government’s demands because U.S. District Court Judge James Bredar has scheduled a March 26 hearing on whether to grant a long-term injunction, a type of ruling that the court prefers to weigh.
Judge Allison Jones Rushing, who was appointed to the Fourth Circuit, wrote Friday that he expressed concern about the scope of the Bredar order, which was filed nationwide, not just the 19 states and the District of Columbia, whose Democratic lawyers filed the case. She wrote that the magistrate “can’t see who the plaintiffs were and the harm they claimed.”
Bredar issued a temporary restraining order on March 13, requiring the government to bring back probation workers fired from 18 core U.S. agencies and their components, such as the Treasury Department and the National Institutes of Health and Human Services Department of Health and Human Services.
In another case, a federal judge in San Francisco signed a long-term injunction earlier this month requiring the government to retrial workers who were fired from agriculture, defense, energy, interior, the Treasury and veterans affairs in mid-February.
The government also appealed the California ruling and asked the 9th Circuit to stop its impact as the legal battle proceeded.
The case is Maryland v. USDA, 25-1248, Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
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