Federal agencies can resume implementing President Trump’s mass layoff directive following Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling, greenlighting agencies to take their first steps in booting thousands of federal workers.

The apparent 8-1 emergency decision lifts the widest block on Trump’s plans for massive reductions in force (RIFs). But a patchwork of injunctions that have yet to reach the justices remain in place, creating a jumbled situation that keeps reductions at specific agencies on ice.

While many legal battles remain ongoing and more are sure to come, the Tuesday ruling allows the Trump administration to kick off layoffs at 17 agencies that have all been directed to conduct widespread cuts.

Here’s what to know.

Most agencies can resume layoffs

The Trump administration was already on the cusp of laying off thousands of federal workers when the courts intervened, blocking the plan amid litigation.

But the Supreme Court’s decision now paves the way for the executive branch to resume implementing Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order, which directs agencies to undertake the RIFs.

The justices lifted a district judge’s May injunction that prevented 22 agencies from carrying out the directive. That ruling meant the agencies couldn’t conduct layoffs or continue planning for them.

Three of those entities — the Department of Government Efficiency, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — aid the others in implementing the initiative. The judge described their role as Trump’s “centralized decisionmakers.”

Among the remaining 19, judges in separate lawsuits have blocked the RIFs at both the Department of Health and Human Services and AmeriCorps. Those injunctions remain in effect.

That leaves 17........

© The Hill