Overview

• The Richmond-based appeals panel ruled 2-1 that 19 states and Washington, D.C., failed to show a concrete, redressable injury from the federal layoffs.
• Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote the majority opinion joined by Judge Allison Jones Rushing, with Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin dissenting.
• The court directed dismissal of the case, undoing a district court order that had temporarily reinstated probationary employees in the suing jurisdictions.
• The states alleged agencies violated reduction-in-force rules requiring 60 days’ notice, while the majority deemed federal workforce management a federal concern and said any direct harms fell on nonparty employees.
• Roughly 24,000 to 25,000 probationary federal workers were terminated in mid-February as part of a downsizing drive led by the Department of Government Efficiency, and a separate Supreme Court order in April paused a California reinstatement ruling covering about 16,000 workers.