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Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee, excoriated lawyers representing the former government watchdogs for how they handled their emergency request, but let the lawsuit proceed on a slower timeline.
Judge Ana C. Reyes, shown at her confirmation hearing in 2022, sharply criticized the plaintiffs’ lawyers: “Why on earth did you not have this figured out with the defendants before coming here?” Credit… Sarah Silbiger/Reuters A federal judge denied eight former inspectors general who were fired by President Trump immediate reinstatement to their jobs on Friday and excoriated their lawyers, saying that their emergency request had wasted the court’s limited time.
The ruling by Judge Ana C. Reyes of the Federal District Court in Washington marked a rare victory for the Trump administration in the barrage of lawsuits that has followed its attempts to slash the federal work force, freeze funding, dismantle agencies and install officials loyal to the president. But it is not necessarily permanent: Judge Reyes criticized the case more on procedural than substantive grounds and allowed it to proceed on a less urgent schedule.
Still, in a roughly 10-minute hearing scheduled just hours before it was held via a conference call, she repeatedly berated the plaintiffs’ lawyers for the manner in which they brought the case. She also faulted what she considered to be their weak arguments for immediately reinstating the eight inspectors general, who performed oversight of the Departments of Defense, State, Education, Agriculture, Labor, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services, as well as the Small Business Administration.
At one point Judge Reyes, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., went as far as to threaten the plaintiffs with court sanctions if they did not immediately withdraw their emergency request so the case could proceed on a slower timeline. The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Seth P. Waxman, a solicitor general for the Clinton administration, initially refused, but eventually assented after further criticism from Judge Reyes.
“Mr. Waxman, I am really debating right now whether to order a show cause on sanctions,” Judge Reyes said right before the call ended. “I’m not going to do it, because I’ve got other things to deal with, but this was totally unacceptable.”
Mr. Waxman and other lawyers for the former inspectors general did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
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