US appeals court rejects states' lawsuit over Trump mass firings

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that 19 mostly Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., cannot pursue a legal challenge to the mass firings of 25,000 recently hired federal workers carried out by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said the states lacked legal standing to sue because they could not demonstrate that they would be harmed directly by the mass termination of probationary federal employees in February.

The ruling marked the Trump administration's latest court victory in its efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, including by cutting probationary employees. They typically have less than a year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal workers in new jobs.

A federal judge in Baltimore had initially ordered 18 federal agencies to reinstate more than 24,000 probationary workers nationwide before narrowing his ruling to those who live and work in the states that had sued. The 4th Circuit panel in April paused that decision, allowing the workers to be terminated, and on Monday overturned the injunction.

The states alleged the administration violated a federal law requiring agencies to give state and local governments 60 days' notice before implementing mass layoffs, which would trigger a flood of unemployment claims.

U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said while many people view the terminations as "harsh," others see them as warranted to trim the "bloat of the federal bureaucracy."

"This clash of views must ultimately be resolved by the voters," Wilkinson, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an opinion joined by Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Allison Jones Rushing.

U.S. Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented, saying she "will not endorse the Government’s attempt to circumvent our Nation's laws."

The agencies at issue included the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.

The White House and states did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April paused a separate ruling by a judge in San Francisco requiring six agencies to reinstate nearly 17,000 probationary workers, pending the Trump administration's appeal.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York and Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Nia Williams)