Trump returns to Supreme Court with emergency appeal over mass firings
CNN
The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday to ask the justices to reverse a lower court order that has blocked mass firings and major reorganizations at federal agencies, a case that could have enormous implications for the president’s power to reshape the federal government.
The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday to ask the justices to reverse a lower court order that has blocked mass firings and major reorganizations at federal agencies, a case that could have enormous implications for the president’s power to reshape the federal government. The latest emergency appeal involving President Donald Trump’s second term to reach the Supreme Court followed an order last week from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that kept on hold Trump’s plans for the sweeping layoffs – known as reductions in force, or RIFs. “Controlling the personnel of federal agencies lies at the heartland” of the president’s authority, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court in the appeal. “The Constitution does not erect a presumption against presidential control of agency staffing, and the president does not need special permission from Congress to exercise” his core constitutional powers. The lawsuit was filed by more than a dozen unions, non-profits and local governments, which are billing it as the largest legal challenge to the Trump administration’s effort to downsize the federal workforce. A senior administration official told CNN last month that it is watching the case closely because of its significance for allowing Trump to reduce the size of and restructure the federal government. Trump had asked the Supreme Court to wade into the case once before, but the Department of Justice withdrew the appeal days later when a federal district court issued a more fulsome order blocking Trump from proceeding. In its 2-1 opinion denying Trump’s request to pause that district court order, the 9th Circuit panel said the Trump executive order at issue “far exceeds the president’s supervisory powers under the Constitution.”
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