Understanding This Week’s Court Rulings On Probationary Employees

This week there were two court rulings that blocked lower court orders requiring the government to reinstate tens of thousands of probationary employees. 

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On Monday, the Supreme Court blocked a district court ruling that required the government to temporarily reinstate more than 16,000 probationary employees across six agencies – Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior, and Treasury - while litigation is ongoing

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On Tuesday, a federal appeals court blocked a separate district court ruling that required 20 federal agencies to reinstate terminated probationary employees across 19 states and the District of Columbia while litigation is ongoing.

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Terminated probationary employees at the Department of Agriculture can, however, still continue to be reinstated until April 18 based on a ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board.  

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