The Fourth Circuit’s ruling follows a Supreme Court verdict that also allowed the Trump administration to move forward with its mass layoffs at federal agencies.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a lower court’s order to reinstate thousands of federal workers previously fired by the Trump administration, including more than 2,000 probationary workers at the Department of Health and Human Services.
In its ruling on Tuesday, the appellate court took the government’s side, noting that the district court “lacked jurisdiction” over the case. The court added that the government “is unlikely to recover the funds disbursed to reinstated probationary employees.”
Circuit Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin disagreed with the ruling, noting in her dissenting opinion that the Maryland district court “entered a well-reasoned memorandum opinion and order granting a preliminary injunction” against the terminations.
The plaintiffs, a consortium of 19 states including Maryland, Minnesota, Arizona and California, “clearly have standing to challenge the process by which the Government has engaged in mass firings,” Benjamin wrote.
Tuesday’s ruling follows a Monday decision from the Supreme Court that similarly allowed the Trump administration to move forward with the termination of probationary employees at federal agencies. According to reporting from NPR, the court ruled that the plaintiffs—a group of non-profits in this case—had no legal standing to bring this specific case against the government. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the non-profits’ case on its merits in the coming weeks, as will the Fourth Circuit on the states’ case. Neither court ruled on the actual legality of the cases.
Since Trump took office in January, HHS has lost some 20,000 employees, including those who voluntarily left the agency. Of these, approximately 2,400 are probationary employees that were affected by the mass layoffs, according to the States’ complaint against the government.
The FDA, in particular, has been gutted. As per Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s directive in late March, around 3,500 jobs at the regulatory agency were on the chopping block. The FDA has also lost several high-ranking officials, including Patrizia Cavazzoni, former head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Namandjé Bumpus, principal deputy commissioner, and Peter Marks, who resigned as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research last month.
According to a BioSpace analysis last week, most of the FDA’s organizational units have lost their heads. Among these units are the Center for Tobacco Products, Human Food Program, Office of the Counselor to the Commissioner and Office of Digital Transformation.
In his resignation letter, Marks warned that “truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
