Washington– Washington (AFP) – supreme court On Tuesday, she sided with President Donald Trump’s administration in a lawsuit over restrictions on free speech Immigration judges Which touched on the rights of federal workers.
The justices overturned a lower court ruling that had allowed the case to proceed and raised questions about whether the complaints system for federal employees was still working as intended after the Republican president fired some of its top officials.
The immigration judges are federal employees, despite their job titles, and wanted to file lawsuits over a policy restricting their public speech that began in Trump’s first term and continued under the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden. The judges said it was a freedom of expression issue for the federal court.
The Trump administration disagreed, saying the judges should instead take their dispute to the federal employee complaints system they oversee. Merit Systems Protection Board.
The court ruled on procedural grounds, but Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, wrote to rebuke the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for its response to “the prevailing political controversies of the day.”
Tuesday’s decision comes as the court considers it Another lawsuit About Trump’s power to fire the heads of independent agencies. The outcome is also expected to impact the firing power of Merit Systems Protection Board members.
The justices first filed a lawsuit in 2020, and the Supreme Court temporarily sided with them on an emergency basis in December. The union said in a statement that the judges were disappointed with the decision, but the case “is not over yet.”
“Justice cannot endure when judges are bullied into silence, and a nation cannot remain free when the rule of law is subject to the whims of political ambition,” the National Association of Immigration Judges said.
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