A federal appeals court on Friday declined to put the brakes on a judge’s order demanding the Trump administration reverse mass layoffs that saw more than 25,000 federal employees ousted across 18 agencies. The decision keeps a temporary reinstatement order alive, with a more permanent ruling expected in the coming days.
The case—brought by 19 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C.—centers on whether the sweeping purge of probationary federal workers bypassed critical rules governing mass layoffs. U.S. District Judge James Bredar had already determined the agencies in question failed to follow required layoff procedures and ordered the workers temporarily reinstated.
Despite the administration’s efforts to pause the ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, found no justification to halt it before the Baltimore court weighs whether to extend the reinstatement next week.
According to filings, the agencies are currently placing affected employees on paid leave while sorting out compliance with the judge’s ruling. Among the departments involved: Veterans Affairs, Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, and Health and Human Services. The sheer numbers are striking—7,600 layoffs at the Treasury Department alone, over 5,700 at Agriculture, and more than 3,200 at HHS.
The contested firings were part of a broader Trump-era strategy—championed by the former president and adviser Elon Musk—to dramatically cut government staffing and spending. However, states argue that the layoffs sidestepped federal requirements mandating 60-day advance notice to state and local governments. They warn the sudden job losses could ripple outward, straining unemployment systems and public services.
This isn’t the only legal challenge to the mass dismissals. Just hours before Bredar’s ruling on March 13, a San Francisco judge issued a similar order for six agencies—overlapping with five named in the Maryland case and also including the Department of Defense. That ruling is now under appeal in a separate federal circuit.
It’s worth noting that both judges stopped short of saying probationary employees can’t be fired—only that the manner in which these terminations were handled didn’t follow legal protocols.
One judge on the Richmond panel, Trump-appointee Allison Rushing, voiced concern over the scope of Bredar’s ruling. In a separate opinion, she argued that the reinstatement order should not apply nationwide but only to the states that actually sued. “The district court lost sight of who the plaintiffs are,” she wrote.
The three-judge panel included appointments from across the political spectrum, underscoring the national attention this case has drawn. With a pivotal hearing on March 26, the battle over the future of thousands of federal jobs is far from over.
