Supreme Court gives Trump major victory on mass federal layoffs

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a near-unanimous order temporarily allowing President Donald Trump to restart his plan for mass federal layoffs after he was blocked by lower courts.

The 8-1 ruling had a lone dissenter: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

'The inevitable consequence is ... frustrating the government’s efforts to impose budgetary discipline and build a more efficient workforce.'

The president had ordered mass firings as part of his plan to cut down the size of the federal government, but in May, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco ruled against him and blocked the action.

Illston said the president "likely must request congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks" and ordered 20 executive-branch entities and "any other individuals acting under their authority or the authority of the president" to refuse layoff orders.

"As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress," she wrote.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the district court had overstepped its legislative authority in the order and called on the Supreme Court to allow Trump's layoffs to continue as planned.

"The inevitable consequence is to compel federal agencies to keep large numbers of employees on the payroll without necessity, at unrecoverable taxpayer expense, thereby frustrating the government’s efforts to impose budgetary discipline and build a more efficient workforce," wrote Sauer.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the president to allow the plan while litigation continues.

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In her dissent, Brown Jackson accused the rest of the court of demonstrating an "enthusiasm for greenlighting this president's legally dubious actions in an emergency posture."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied an appeal from the government in June and sided with Illston's ruling.

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