A federal judge on Friday refused to order the reinstatement of a Yosemite National Park ranger fired last year for unfurling a transgender pride flag from El Capitan.

The judge ruled that the court has no power to second-guess the termination or to head off a possible criminal case against the former employee.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston, sitting in Fresno, California, sent Shannon "SJ" Joslin's claims to the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency Congress designated to handle disputes over civil service firings.

Thurston wrote that "under the laws that Congress has passed, and under the legal precedent that a federal trial court must follow, this Court does not have authority to decide whether Joslin was fired for unconstitutional or illegal reasons, nor to block a hypothetical criminal case against them."

The court, she said, "lacks jurisdiction to review Joslin's termination or to offer any related relief, including a reinstatement."

The ruling routes the dispute back through the federal civil service machinery rather than the courts, at least for now. Thurston, a 2021 appointee of former President Joe Biden, sits in the Eastern District of California, which covers Yosemite.

Joslin, a wildlife biologist who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, was fired in August, three months after hanging a large pink, blue and white flag from the granite wall on a day off.

The termination letter cited a failure to "demonstrate acceptable conduct."

The Park Service has also said it's weighing criminal charges against several visitors involved in the May 2025 climb.

Joslin sued the Interior Department, the Park Service, and the Justice Department in federal court in Washington in February, alleging viewpoint-based retaliation and violations of the Privacy Act.

The case was transferred to California in March on the government's motion, and Friday's ruling came on Joslin's bid for a preliminary injunction.

An Interior Department spokesperson defended the agency's stance, saying it "will not tolerate violations of laws and regulations" affecting park resources and that "demonstrating without a permit outside of designated First-Amendment areas detracts from the visitor experience."

Joslin, in an earlier interview, framed the firing as part of a broader chill on federal workers: "Yes, I lost my job for this flag. But this wasn't the first way that the Trump administration had been scaring us into silence as federal workers."

The Office of Special Counsel investigates prohibited personnel practices in the federal workforce and can seek corrective action, leaving Joslin's constitutional arguments alive in a different forum even as the courthouse door closes for now.