If you're watching this video, you're
probably a federal employee. And to say
that 2025 has been a a year of
confusion, uh, surprises, and
consternation is probably an
understatement. Purpose of this video is
to try and clear up a couple of items
that you may be wondering about based
upon a recent order that came out from
the Supreme Court uh, just this month.
yesterday. As a matter of fact, from the
date this is being recorded,
the Supreme Court issued an order. It's
not a decision in the usual sense. It
doesn't have a signature from a
particular justice. Uh and if you look
at the article or the order itself,
you'll find that it's
17 18 pages long. And that's a bit of a
surprise for a decision like this or an
order like this. But the reason for that
is most of it is a disscent from Justice
Jackson. I'll get into that more in a
minute. We just wanted to clear up a
couple of things that may help you
decide about your future in the
government, help you make decisions that
could affect your career, and to help
you make the right decision for you.
Because as everybody's in a different
position, only you can decide what's
best for you. The decision is called
Trump versus AFGE.
And what it amounts to is it allows
large-scale rifts and reorganizations
throughout the government. The reason
the order came out and this is according
to the Supreme Court is that it
concluded the government is likely to
succeed on its argument that these
directives are lawful and therefore it
lifted an injunction that had been
issued by a district court. Now the
directives that it's talking about
there's an executive order that came out
on government optimization. Uh there's
some OPM guidance that came out about
how to conduct a riffs or what agencies
should be doing to prepare for riffs and
that's what's at issue here. You need to
pay attention to the court statement
because you're going to be reading
articles from various organizations and
they basically say this is unfair. Uh
it's a threat to democracy. It's all
kinds of things. The real question is
what is the legal issue that's involved
and what's going to happen? The court
has said in its decision and I would
take it as they've looked at this case
and at least on a very quick reaction
they think that the government is likely
to prevail uh in this argument to allow
it to the riffs to go forward. So, as a
practical matter, what this means is if
you're in an agency and your agency's
preparing for a riff, and they probably
are because OPM told agencies back in
February to start preparing for riffs
and reorganization. So, that preparation
is probably pretty far along. Based on
this decision that's come out, some
agencies are probably going to start
implementing these riffs and these
reorganizations very quickly. That's
what you have to plan on. uh there may
be differences in your agency obviously
and you can to find out what's going on
there but for the government as a whole
riffs are likely to be coming out. One
of the questions that we're going to get
and I've already gotten a couple like
this on the article that was published
on Smith Fedsmith today and if you go to
fedsmith.com you'll see that article uh
you can there's a link to the Supreme
Court order that's come out and that's
the order I'm talking about. One of the
questions that came up is, is the court
likely to overturn riiffs and
reorganizations in the near future? And
a probably the person has read
statements, arguments, press releases
coming out from it could be unions,
other organizations, could be news
organizations, and they're declaring
that this decision, this order is
unfair, it's a threat to democracy, etc.
Ignore all that. What you need to look
at is what is the court likely to do?
How is it likely to affect you? But what
kind of decision are you going to be
making in the near future uh with regard
to your career? First of all, let's look
at the issue. If you have a riff in your
agency and you are rift, can you appeal
the decision that's made and how it
affects you? The answer is possibly,
even probably, because there is an
appeal right to go to the Merit Systems
Protection Board or the MSPB. It doesn't
apply to any decision that's made. If
you're separated, if you're demoted, if
you're furoughed for more than 30 days,
you can probably go to the MSPB with an
appeal and you can make your argument
and see if you can get it overturned.
The next question that comes about is,
can you go back to court? Can you take
your the agency's decision to riff you
to a court? Possibly. It's much less
likely you're going to succeed at that
level, but you can take it. see what the
court says. To get a case before a court
and a riff related action, you'd have to
show a constitutional violation.
Doesn't sound like that would be likely.
Uh but if you think you've got that
argument, talk to your lawyer, make your
decision, and move forward. Or you can
challenge the legality of the executive
order or the agency reorganization. And
there's already been a decision, initial
decision or initial order from that on
the court. make your decision and then
make your move. You can also make an
argument to the court that you're part
of a class action lawsuit or a union
litigation. Perhaps that will get you
somewhere. For most people, what you're
going to end up going doing is going
before the MSPB if you're demoted,
suspended, furlow for more than 30 days.
Now, some of the people are asking, what
about this long descent by Justice
Jackson? How does that play? Well, what
she said, and this is a quote from her
decision. In my view, this decision is
not only truly unfortunate, but also
hubistic and senseless. Lower court
judges have their fingers on the pulse
of what's happening on the ground and
are indisputably best positioned to
determine the relevant facts, including
those that underly fair assessment of
the merits, harms, inequities. That's a
pretty strong descent. uh and it's not
the first strong descent that Justice
Jackson has come out with. In fact, it's
led to some dissension on the courts
that have been the topic of articles by
legal experts. As an example, Justice
Barrett, another Supreme Court justice
in another decision, not this one I'm
talking about today, but she cited
Justice Jackson just a few days ago, as
issuing a disscent on a startling line
of attack that is tethered neither to
precedent in the Constitution nor
frankly to any doctrine whatsoever.
These are fairly strong statements.
They've been commented on by some legal
experts, including some law professors.
So, I don't know that this descent by
Justice Jackson, despite its length, uh,
and despite being on an order and not on
a final decision of the court, is going
to have that much of an impact on what
decision you need to make with regard to
your future as a federal employee. What
we do know for now, these riffs are
likely to go forward. You may have an
appeal right to the MSPB. You probably
do because in most cases, if the
agency's running the riff, something's
going to happen. And the purpose of the
riffs is to reduce the size of the
federal workforce. President Trump made
made that clear in the fact sheet that
came out with the executive order and in
the executive order itself. Pli made
that comment numerous times running for
president and he wasn't kidding. He's
intending to do that. He's moving out to
do it. So you need to look at what your
what is your position. Some people,
particularly if you're a relatively new
employee, you are much more likely to be
riffed because your seniority is a whole
lot less. If you're a veteran, you have
some preferences. So, your chances of
being thrown out on the street looking
for a new job is probably less than it
is for some other employees. But we've
been contacted or received notes from
people that said, "I've been offered a
job. Should I take it?" We can't advise
you on that one way or the other. We
don't know what your future is in the
government. We don't know what your
future would be in the private sector,
but you just need to step back what's
best for you, best for your family. take
into account this decision that's come
out that's allowing the risk to go
forward. It may be a precursor to the
future and it may have an impact on how
you proceed as an employee of the
federal government. Thanks for watching.
For more information, check out the
article on fedsmith.com on this and
related articles. The decisions coming
out uh cover a lot of things that
involve the federal workforce. They're
confusing. Some of the decisions seem
contradictory between say the district
courts, the courts of appeal, the
supreme court. As we told you in an
article or in a video also early in the
year, the initial decisions aren't the
ones that are final. Probably people,
conservative, liberal, doesn't make any
difference, will often choose a district
court to go to where they think they're
more likely to get a favorable decision.
This recent order where the Supreme
Court lifted the injunction came from a
court in California. A lot of these
cases are coming out of California, miss
Massachusetts, Maryland, DC. That's not
surprising. What is going to make the
final decision is when the appeals are
done, the decisions are issued. That
won't be f won't be fast. Uh it may take
a few months. The Supreme Court may not
issue more decisions till it goes back
in session this fall. We wish you all
the best of luck. We hope you make the
decision best for you and your family.
Thanks for watching.