“The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and found new jobs. Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts. The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization,” he wrote in a decision that sharply criticized the growing use of the Supreme Court’s shadow docket.

Instead of requiring the employees be reinstated, Alsup ordered the federal government to update its personnel files to reflect that the firing of 25,406 employees was unrelated to performance and to send letters to each of the affected employees saying, “You were not terminated on the basis of your personal performance.”