The justices lifted San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston's May 22 order that had blocked large-scale federal layoffs called "reductions in force" affecting potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs, while litigation in the case proceeds.

Handing President Donald Trump another victory, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for his administration to pursue mass federal job cuts potentially numbering in the hundreds of thousands and the restructuring of numerous agencies.