WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to suspend a federal judge's ruling which required six federal agencies to rehire 16,000 probationary employees who had been recently laid off.

Earlier this month, US District Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Veterans Affairs Department, the Agriculture Department, the Defense Department, the Energy Department, the Interior Department, and the Treasury Department to immediately rehire more than 16,000 probationary federal employees.

Alsup of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California stated that the Office of Personnel Management had illegally reduced federal agency staff.

"It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," the federal judge said. "That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements."

The Justice Department said in a court file Monday that "Those orders have sown chaos as the Executive Branch scrambles to meet immediate compliance deadlines by sending huge sums of government money out the door, reinstating thousands of lawfully terminated workers, undoing steps to restructure Executive Branch agencies, and more."

"The lower courts should not be allowed to transform themselves into all-purpose overseers of Executive Branch hiring, firing, contracting, and policymaking. Only this Court can end the interbranch power grab," according to the document.

Federal government employees typically have a probationary period of one to two years. In addition to newly hired employees, probationary employees also include those who have recently been promoted or transferred to different positions. As the Trump administration seeks to cut spending and reduce the federal government workforce, probationary employees — who have generally limited employment protection — are the first to be let go.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is pushing for large-scale layoffs across the federal government. The actions have triggered multiple legal lawsuits and sparked several protests in the capital, Washington, D.C.