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High Court Won't Review Firings Of Child Welfare Workers

AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

The Arizona Supreme Court is declining to review a decision upholding the firings of five Arizona child welfare workers who said they were made scapegoats for an agency scandal.

The high court denied the women's appeal on Monday. The ruling upheld a Court of Appeals decision that said they were at-will employees not protected by state civil service law.

The five senior Child Protective Services workers were fired months after the November 2013 discovery that thousands of child abuse hotline calls were labeled as not worthy of being investigated. CPS itself was then shuttered and a new Department of Child Safety created.

The workers argued they were illegally fired for political reasons and not because they failed at their jobs. Attorney Terry Woods says he's "terribly disappointed" by the decision.

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