In a significant development, the US Supreme Court on Monday permitted President Donald Trump to resume efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, suspending a lower court order that required the reinstatement of up to 1,400 employees.
The court’s conservative majority granted the Trump administration's emergency request, placing on hold a previous ruling that argued the staff cuts would hinder the department's ability to fulfill its legal responsibilities. The order did not include a written explanation and remains effective while the appeal is ongoing.
The court’s three liberal justices strongly dissented. Writing on behalf of the group, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the decision as “indefensible,” suggesting it allowed the president to dismantle laws by removing those who enforce them.
“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,” Sotomayor wrote. She was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The Supreme Court's order aligns with a separate decision issued last week, which allowed Trump to broadly pursue a reduction in the federal workforce. While that ruling didn’t weigh in on specific agency plans, the latest decision could bolster Trump's administration as it faces ongoing legal battles challenging these efforts.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious,” McMahon said in a statement. “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.”
On March 11, McMahon announced plans to cut the department's workforce in half through a formal reduction in force. Just days later, Trump issued an executive order on March 20 directing her to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”
The directive quickly drew legal challenges. Two lawsuits were filed — one by Democratic-led states and another by Massachusetts public school systems and unions.
“Without explaining to the American people its reasoning, a majority of justices on the US Supreme Court have dealt a devastating blow to this nation's promise of public education for all children,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represents the schools and unions.
The New York Attorney General’s office, which led one of the suits, has not yet commented on the ruling.
In May, US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston ruled that the Education Department could be “crippled” by the proposed cuts. He stated the plaintiffs were likely to prove that Trump was attempting to dismantle the department by firing employees, closing regional offices, and transferring its programs to other agencies.
“A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all,” Joun wrote. “This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the department's employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the department becomes a shell of itself.”
The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals had previously declined to block Joun’s ruling, prompting Trump to seek relief from the Supreme Court.
The case is one of several recent challenges related to Trump’s efforts to restructure federal agencies established by Congress, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, US Agency for International Development, and the US Institute of Peace.
The Supreme Court’s latest decision could serve as a legal precedent supporting expanded executive authority over federal agency operations—raising fresh concerns about checks and balances in governance.
