US state department issues first of 1,350 termination orders after court lifted ban

A former Foreign Service employee, Anne Bodine of Arlington, Virginia, demonstrates against layoffs at the state department in Washington on Friday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

The US state department has begun issuing the first of more than 1,350 termination notices as part of a huge reorganisation of America’s diplomatic corps under the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, according to internal documents and US diplomats at the state department on Friday.

Career diplomats and other staff began to receive the notices on Friday morning, days after the supreme court lifted a ban on the Trump administration moving forward with mass firings of government employees that will affect hundreds of thousands of federal workers.