A U.S. appeals court cleared the way on Wednesday for 18 federal agencies to once again fire thousands of employees who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce but were later reinstated by a judge.

Donald Trump can fire members of two independent agencies, a divided federal appeals court in Washington ruled, boosting the president’s efforts to dramatically reshape the US government.

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Tuesday by enabling officials to fire thousands of federal workers in their probationary period, saying the government employee

A federal judge in California had ordered the Trump administration to rehire government employees fired as part of its efforts to slash the federal work force.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to keep several thousand probationary federal employees it is attempting to fire off the payroll while lower courts weigh whether the downsizing efforts are legal,

The decision almost certainly tees up another Supreme Court showdown over the power of the president to control every aspect of the executive branch.

The Supreme Court's ruling applies to 16,000 recently reinstated feds, but some of those are still protected by another court decision.

The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now.

In our news wrap Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in its push to lay off thousands of federal workers, President Trump signed four executive orders designed to boost coal production after decades of decline and at least 58 people were killed in the Dominican Republic when a nightclub roof collapsed.