Trump appeal to keep federal workers fired denied

The Trump administration was dealt a rather significant blow this week in one of the challenges to an executive order.

Trump’s quest to thin out the federal workforce was defeated again in federal court, and now the administration is working to reinstate nearly 25,000 federal employees.

Get rid of them

Trump was not even in office a month when a massive layoff order was issued from the White House to shed federal workers.

Trump had ordered all probationary workers to be terminated, but the thinning of the herd went much deeper than that.

Trump had issued a buyout offer, and workers who did not take the offer and who were deemed to be not essential were also cut.

In total, it was revealed that approximately 24,500 federal workers had been terminated.

Trump Loses the Case

The initial case went before a Democrat-appointed judge, so we all know how that worked out… Trump lost.

Trump was hoping for relief on appeal, but that did not come either. And again, the ruling fell along ideological lines, with two Democrats ruling in favor of the plaintiff while the Trump-appointed judge sided with the administration.

The majority opinion stated, “Given that the district court found that the employees were wrongfully terminated and ordered an immediate return to the status quo ante, an administrative stay of the district court’s order would not preserve the status quo. It would do just the opposite — it would disrupt the status quo and turn it on its head.”

The argument is that the Trump administration violated federal rules with the massive layoff, which, if true, is a major strike against Trump for firing from the hip rather than checking rules and regulations before issuing these orders.

Trump scrambling to rehire federal employees

The thing that concerns me about this case is that the Trump administration appears to be throwing up the white flag in terms of keeping these staffers out of work.

Reports broke on Tuesday morning that the administration was already scrambling to reinstate the nearly 25,000 workers it had laid off. Top officials in 18 federal departments outlined their respective team’s efforts to bring these staffers back on board.

I have not fully investigated the federal guidelines on mass layoffs, so I am more or less firing from the hip here. This is beyond sloppy if Trump did not check these rules before making this decision and it will cost him and the party politically if this move backfires.

Imagine how much money this fiasco is costing the American taxpayer in firing then rehiring all these staffers, which will also likely result in backpay if any of them lost wagers during this time. Politically speaking, this is about as bad as it can get for Trump unless he manages to win an appeal at the Supreme Court level, if they go that route, which, to this point, they have not.