Judge Refuses to Immediately Reinstate Inspectors General Fired by Trump

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.

President Trump has moved swiftly to purge federal agencies in his first weeks in office, targeting many executive branch officials whose positions are supposed to be protected from being fired without cause. Inspectors general, who monitor their assigned agencies for fraud, waste and other misbehavior, are among those officials who have statutory restrictions on how they can be fired, ones that Congress tightened after Mr. Trump dismissed some inspectors general during his first term.

The inspectors general in this case had argued that a judge’s order this week to temporarily reinstate another government watchdog — Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel — while that court challenge progresses had supported their own request to have the inspectors general immediately reinstated while their case proceeds.

But Judge Reyes deemed that argument flimsy and scolded the plaintiffs for making it. Mr. Dellinger, Judge Reyes said, leads an independent agency, and Mr. Trump needs a strong reason to remove him. In comparison, Judge Reyes said, Mr. Trump needs only to provide Congress with 30 days’ notice and a written explanation to remove an inspector general. She added that even if she had immediately reinstated the watchdogs on Friday, the president could simply move to have them fired again after 30 days.

During the short hearing, Judge Reyes raised her voice and repeatedly cut off Mr. Waxman, ticking through the many other urgent cases that judges in Washington had to consider surrounding Mr. Trump’s efforts to purge the federal bureaucracy, and how little time the court had to address them all.

In particular, Judge Reyes admonished the plaintiffs for waiting 21 days after the inspectors general were fired to request a temporary restraining order, an emergency motion that requires the court to move immediately to hear the case because the matter is so urgent.

“Why on earth did you not have this figured out with the defendants,” Judge Reyes asked the plaintiffs, “before coming here and burdening me and burdening my staff on this issue?”

Using the legal parlance for a temporary restraining order, she continued, “Are we really here right now on the sixth hearing of this day for me to decide whether to grant a T.R.O. given the circumstances that you guys could not even bother filing a T.R.O. for 21 days?”

Judge Reyes singled out Mr. Waxman for criticism, saying in effect that he knew better.

“You are an experienced, experienced individual,” she said of Mr. Waxman, adding that “there is no universe in which I would ever be qualified enough to be hired by the solicitor general’s office, much less be the solicitor general.”

Judge Reyes gave Trump administration lawyers an additional week to respond to the request to reinstate the government watchdogs. Before ending the hearing, Judge Reyes asked Jeremy Newman, the lawyer from the Justice Department, who had remained quiet as she unleashed her anger against the plaintiffs, if he had anything to add.

“Nothing from the government,” he replied.