Trump Loses Bid to Stop Rehiring Fired Employees During Appeal

The Trump administration must keep rehiring federal employees at six federal agencies while it appeals a California judge’s order to reinstate them, an appeals court said.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request Wednesday to pause the lower court ruling. The administration estimated that decision by Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California covered 16,000 employees.

The government failed to convince the appeals court that the American Federation of Government Employees doesn’t have standing to sue federal agencies over their members’ terminations.

Wednesday’s order builds on the Ninth Circuit’s March 17 decision not to block the California judge’s order to reinstate the workers while the case proceeds through the appeals process.

Judge Bridget Bade, a Trump appointee, dissented, saying that plaintiffs can’t dispute the terminations in court.

“It is not clear the district court has the authority to direct lawful personnel management decisions within the agencies,” Bade wrote in her dissent.

The case is Am. Fed. of Gov’t Emp. v. OPM, 9th Cir., 25-1677, 3/26/25.