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Supreme Court allows Trump administration to resume mass federal layoffs for now

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The Trump administration can move ahead with its plans to lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: That's after the U.S. Supreme Court put on hold - for now - a lower court ruling which blocked a February executive order announcing large-scale cuts at government agencies. Those layoffs will be allowed to move forward while legal challenges play out in the lower courts.

MARTÍNEZ: Joining us now to talk about all this is Andrea Hsu, NPR's labor and workplace correspondent. Andrea, how sweeping is this order?

ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: This is a really big deal, A. It affects close to 20 agencies, including very large ones like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Treasury Department and many others. And in some cases, like at Health and Human Services, some 10,000 employees had already been issued layoff notices. And the reason most of them are still on the payroll is because of that lower court order that's now gone - for now, anyway. We don't know how soon people might be formally separated. My colleague Michele Keleman has heard that the State Department will be moving forward with cutting hundreds of foreign service officers, and that could start as early as today.

MARTÍNEZ: So are we likely to see this across the entire federal government?

HSU: Actually, not necessarily. You know, earlier this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it would not carry out the large-scale layoffs that it had announced a couple of months ago because it's already on pace to reduce its staff by some 30,000 employees through other means, like normal attrition and early retirements, and the Trump administration's deferred resignation or buyout program and the hiring freeze. You know, earlier, the VA had said it planned to cut about 80,000 people. And a lot of people chose to leave because they feared being fired, so it's not clear how a reduction of 30,000 people is now deemed adequate. You know, could it be tied to Elon Musk's departure from Washington? Maybe. But there was a lot of pushback from veterans groups over this proposal, from employee unions. We just don't have a clear picture of how these decisions are being made.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. What was the reaction, or what has been the reaction to the court's decision?

HSU: Yeah. Well, the labor unions that sued to block Trump's reorganization called the decision a serious blow to our democracy and warned that this order from the Supreme Court would put the government services that Americans rely on in jeopardy. They had argued that Trump's executive order was unconstitutional, saying he could not carry out such a radical transformation of government without authorization from Congress. And the lower court agreed with the unions on that point. But yesterday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor - who sided with the Supreme Court majority yesterday - she pointed out that Trump's executive order explicitly tells agencies to comply with the law when carrying out their layoffs. And she noted, it's not yet clear what the agencies are doing, that the courts haven't yet assessed whether the agency's reorganization plans are legal.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, what has the White House said about the order?

HSU: Well, A, they're calling the ruling another definitive victory for President Trump. In a statement, the spokesperson Harrison Fields wrote this. He said, "it clearly rebukes the continued assault on the president's constitutionally authorized executive powers by leftist judges who are trying to prevent the president from achieving government efficiency across the federal government." That's a quote.

Now, remember, this is not the end of the case. It goes back to the lower court. But bottom line, this is a big win for the president. The Supreme Court has once again issued an order without any public arguments, allowing Trump to forge ahead with his agenda.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Andrea Hsu. Thanks a lot.

HSU: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Andrea Hsu is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent.
A Martínez is one of the hosts of Morning Edition and Up First. He came to NPR in 2021 and is based out of NPR West.