A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from firing 19 CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence employees who worked on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which President Donald Trump had ordered terminated.
On Feb. 27, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in eastern Virginia denied the request for a temporary halt to Trump’s policy, ruling that staffers could seek reassignment. However, the CIA stated that the employees had no right to a review of their firings.
Trenga reversed course on Monday, deciding that the intelligence staffers deserved the chance to appeal their firings and be considered for other positions.
Intelligence staffers ‘very pleased’ with ruling: lawyer
Kevin Carroll, a lawyer for the staffers and a former CIA caseworker, said ODNI “to their credit” offered to consider two of the staffers for transfers, but the CIA declined.
“We are very pleased with the decision,” Carroll stated. “The judge decided to enjoin CIA and ODNI from firing these DEI folks unless and until they listen to appeals, and then consider them for other jobs inside the intel community.”
The Justice Department, CIA, and ODNI did not immediately respond to inquiries about the decision.
Trump orders to end DEI programs spark lawsuits
On his first day in office, Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order aimed at ending government DEI programs.
“The injection of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy,” a tweet from Trump stated.
His three DEI orders aimed to eliminate preferential treatment in hiring, spending, and the military, replacing it with merit-based decisions. Private companies have also begun to change their DEI programs as a result of the orders.
However, the orders sparked several lawsuits alleging that the president’s order violated the free speech rights of federal employees and contractors. A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked the order from affecting federal agencies and contractors. Separate lawsuits in California and Maryland are being filed by civil rights groups and a teachers’ union against the order.
‘No process to appeal’ CIA firing: government lawyer
Government lawyers contended that the law empowers the CIA director to fire an employee if the termination is deemed necessary or advisable in the interests of the United States. Unlike other government employees, intelligence personnel cannot file an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board.
“There is no process to appeal this decision within the Agency or otherwise seek reassignment within the Agency,” wrote Dennis Barghaan, chief of the civil division in the US Attorney’s Office in eastern Virginia.
However, lawyers for the intelligence workers, who were not identified by name, claimed that 33 Senate-confirmed directors of central and national intelligence have never terminated a group of officers for any reason other than national security since the CIA’s inception in 1947.
“It is far more likely that this supposedly dormant power does not lawfully exist,” the lawyers wrote. “Defendants’ gross overreach risks destroying the Intelligence Community as a nonpartisan entity.”
