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(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily paused a lower court order from last week that had handed a major victory to government workers and consumer advocates fighting President Donald Trump's attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Even so, judges at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia largely maintained the status quo, leaving in place provisional agreements blocking administration efforts to fire staff or cancel contracts, and saying they understood the agency would continue to perform its legally required functions.
Thursday's ruling said the temporary pause would give the appeals court time to consider an emergency Justice Department request that the lower court's order be put on hold while government lawyers seek to have it reversed outright.
The three-judge panel cautioned, however, that this should not be read as a sign of what they will ultimately decide.
"The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion," the order said.
Justice Department lawyers gave notice on Saturday that they intended to lodge an appeal against U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's March 28 order that directed the CFPB not to delete any data, to reinstate fired workers and to allow work to resume, among other instructions.
In February, Trump fired the CFPB's director and the White House gave officials from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency unfettered access to sensitive agency data systems. The shutdown resulted in mass dismissals, contract terminations, office closures and a sudden agency-wide work stoppage.
After workers and consumer advocates sued, denouncing these steps as patently illegal, agency leadership sought to reverse some of their actions, something Judge Berman Jackson said was likely "a charade for the court's benefit."
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Nia Williams)
