Some federal workers cried. Some shook their heads and began updating their résumés. Others — including union leaders — vowed to fight, determined to hang on to the government jobs that many took because they wanted to serve the American public.
After the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump on Tuesday to resume firing government workers, federal employees rushed to Signal group chats and anxious phone calls, trying to figure out what it meant for them. The court lifted a lower-court order that had temporarily blocked the administration’s plans to lay off thousands of federal workers, including at the State Department and the Social Security Administration, because the administration did not first consult with Congress. But few details were immediately available.
Litigation will continue as the layoffs proceed at 19 agencies, according to the ruling, which drew dissent from one liberal justice. It marks the latest upheaval in a chaotic half-year of Trump-driven downsizings of federal departments, which spurred lawsuits and court-ordered halts — followed by still other court counterorders resuming the federal dismissals.
The ruling may also usher in a new phase of more professionalized layoffs, as opposed to the rapid, error-filled slashing undertaken in the early months of the Trump administration by often very young members of the U.S. DOGE Service, a cost-cutting team set up by billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has since departed government, and DOGE’s influence has waned after the group’s public image tanked. Many of its signature efforts have backfired — for example, over long wait times at a diminished Social Security Administration — and have drawn lawsuits.