4th Circuit Allows Administration Firing of Probationary Employees
In a 2-1 decision Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside a Maryland district judge’s injunction that had ordered various agencies to reinstate probationary federal employees fired by the Trump administration. The FCC wasn’t one of the agencies, but the action affects DOD and Department of Commerce employees.
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“The Government is likely to succeed in showing the district court lacked jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims, and the Government is unlikely to recover the funds disbursed to reinstated probationary employees,” said the opinion by Judges Allison Jones Rushing and Harvie Wilkinson. Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin dissented, writing, “The states clearly have standing to challenge the process by which the government has engaged in mass firings ... I see no reason to stay the district court’s preliminary injunction pending its appeal.”