Fourth Circuit orders the CIA and ODNI to rehire 19 officers fired over diversity assignments

A federal appeals court has ordered the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to rehire 19 career intelligence officers the agencies fired after the officers spent time on diversity assignments, ruling that the agencies did not follow their own termination rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, upheld a district court injunction in a 2-1 decision. The order requires the CIA and ODNI to let the officers seek reassignment to other positions and appeal their terminations internally before they can be removed. News reports of the decision were published July 2 and 3.

What the court decided

The panel put the case on one question: whether the intelligence agencies' termination rules give an employee the right to be considered for reassignment and to appeal a termination decision. "We find that it does," the appeals court wrote, according to NBC News.

The majority held that the CIA and ODNI failed to abide by their own regulations when they fired the 19 officers. The decision was 2-1, with one judge dissenting.

The firings

The officers had been assigned to roles dealing with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. They said a previous administration directed them to do that work. In court filings described by The Epoch Times, the CIA's director said the terminations were carried out to effectuate the directives in a DEIA executive order signed by President Trump.

The officers argued their firings were "arbitrary" and "unsupported by any evidentiary record whatsoever," and that they should have been reassigned to new duties rather than penalized for jobs assigned to them under the prior administration, NBC News reported. An earlier order in the same case had temporarily halted the firing of 11 officers; the group at issue later reached 19.

The government's position

Attorneys for the government argued that CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the director of national intelligence had authority to terminate employees with or without cause, NBC News reported. The CIA and ODNI did not respond to a request for comment. The administration is expected to appeal.

What the officers' side said

Kevin Carroll, the lawyer for the officers, said in a statement: "We are gratified by the Court of Appeals upholding the District Court's injunction. Intelligence officers have due process rights, too." Carroll said the CIA director and the acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, "ought to get these good Americans back to work for our country."

What happens next

The order restores the officers' access to the agencies' internal reassignment and appeal process. It does not decide whether the agencies can ultimately remove them once that process is followed. It was not clear when the officers would return or what assignments they would get. The administration is likely to seek further review.