The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow it to proceed with its sweeping federal workforce reductions across various federal agencies, arguing lower courts erred by blocking President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California blocked Trump’s February executive order seeking to reduce the federal workforce, ruling that Congress must approve of such cuts. A federal appeals court upheld the preliminary injunction on Friday, leading to Solicitor General D. John Sauer seeking a stay of the order from the Supreme Court.
Sauer argued in his petition that “controlling the personnel of federal agencies lies at the heartland” of the president’s constitutional power over the executive branch, and he said the lower courts erred by blocking the president’s workforce reduction plan.
The solicitor general claimed the district court’s order included “multiple fatal flaws,” including that the large-scale reductions in force are “indisputably permitted by federal law.” He urged the Supreme Court to issue an immediate administrative stay because of the irreparable harm caused to the executive branch by preventing it from cutting back staffing levels.
“Every day that the preliminary injunction remains in effect, a government-wide program to implement agency RIFs is being halted and delayed, maintaining a bloated and inefficient workforce while wasting countless taxpayer dollars,” Sauer said in his petition to the high court.
The Trump administration has gone to the Supreme Court for urgent actions to pause lower courts rulings numerous times already, causing the high court’s emergency docket to fill up with pleas from the administration.
At issue in Sauer’s application on Monday to the Supreme Court is a nationwide injunction the lower court judge issued blocking the executive order. Trump and his allies have railed against courts’ dramatically increased use of nationwide injunctions to block his agenda.
The high court is currently considering arguments in a case centering on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which could have significant implications for when district courts may issue nationwide injunctions.
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“Exacerbating matters, the district court joined the parade of courts entering improper universal injunctions, extending relief far beyond what was necessary to redress respondents’ alleged injuries,” Sauer said in the petition to the high court Monday.
“It enjoined almost two dozen executive entities, plus anyone acting under the President’s authority, from implementing any RIFs pursuant to the Executive Order or Memo, regardless of whether the termination of the employees at issue would have any effect on respondents,” Sauer added, discussing the sweeping nature of the district court’s order pausing reduction in force efforts.