At Trump's direction, the administration has come up with plans to reduce staff at the US Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and more than a dozen other agencies.

The justices said they were not ruling on the legality of specific firing plans but simply allowing the administration to launch such efforts while litigation continues.

The administration argues that the president does not need additional authorization from Congress to conduct agency-wide layoffs. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the Supreme Court’s order, saying it “stopped lawless lower courts from restricting President Trump’s authority over federal personnel.”