March 6 (UPI) — A federal judge in Washington denied a motion Thursday to stop the federal government from firing contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Several USAID personal services contractors had sought a temporary injunction to stop their firings while awaiting the outcome of the federal case they filed seeking to preserve their positions.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Carl Nichols denied the motion and said the plaintiffs did not prove they face irreparable harm or a likelihood of success based on the merits of their case, The Hill reported.
The contractors immediately could have returned to their former jobs if Nichols had granted their motion to temporarily enjoin the Trump administration from firing them while the case is argued.
The Personal Services Contractor Association filed the lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of fired contractors and said nearly half of them work overseas.
The PSCA said “possibly hundreds” of USAID’s 1,110 contractors received notices indicating their respective contracts with the agency were terminated.
Nichols said the firings are due to changes in the federal contracts with the respective plaintiff contractors and said any relief should be sought elsewhere.
“The destruction of USAID is now imminent,” plaintiff attorney Carolyn Shapiro said during a motion hearing Wednesday.
President Donald Trump nominated Nichols to the federal district court in 2019, and he similarly ruled against a motion to halt USAID mass firings in a case filed by two unions that represent the workers.
In that case, Nichols initially granted a motion to temporarily halt USAID employee firings, but later dissolved that order after finding the unions exaggerated the harms suffered by workers and declined to grant additional relief, CBS News reported.
“Plaintiffs have presented no irreparable harm they or their members are imminently likely to suffer from the hypothetical future dissolution of USAID,” Nichols wrote in his Feb. 21 ruling in that matter.
Nichols said USAID employees who are likely to be laid off or terminated can pursue relief through the appropriate governmental body for federal worker complaints.
Nichols also said federal law provides USAID workers in the United States or their union representatives to object to being put on administrative leave and the federal district court likely has no jurisdiction of the union’s claims in the matter.
The Trump administration justified its case for the firings and dismantling of USAID as policy goals, Nichols ruled.
USAID’s acting administrator for global health, Nicholas Enrich, said in a Feb. 28 memo that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID puts lives at risk.
“These actions individually and in combination have resulted in the U.S. government’s failure to implement critical lifesaving activities,” Enrich said in the memo, CNN reported.
Enrich earlier warned against dismantling USAID and said a suspension of foreign aid could cause a spike in diseases, such as malaria, Ebola and avian flu, which he said could directly affect public health in the United States.
