The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary injunction from a Massachusetts district court and ruled 6-3 on Monday that the Trump administration can continue to fire staff from the U.S. Department of Education.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: The president of the United States, as the head of the executive branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” stated Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary.
“While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution,” she said.
“We will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most—to students, parents and teachers,” McMahon said. “As we return education to the states, this administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”
U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Monday that the court gave “a major victory to parents and students across the country, by declaring the Trump administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education back to the states.”
“The federal government has been running our education system into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the power back to the people,” Trump stated.
The district court had halted the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off 1,400 staffers in May.
The court did not release a majority decision.
Sonia Sotomayor, an associate justice on the high court, stated in her dissent that “only Congress has the power to abolish the department.”
“When the executive publicly announces its intent to break the law and then executes on that promise, it is the judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” she stated. “Two lower courts rose to the occasion, preliminarily enjoining the mass firings while the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the government to proceed with dismantling the department. That decision is indefensible.”
“The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” she added.
Associate justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the dissent.
