The Trump administration may move forward with firing hundreds of employees in the Department of Education as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency, the U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday.
In a brief order, justices reversed a Massachusetts judge’s decision that prevented the administration from firing more than 1,300 employees in the decades-old agency.
It is the latest win they’ve handed the Trump administration as the president seeks to expand his executive authority through executive orders. Last week, the court allowed Trump to move forward with mass layoffs to reduce the federal workforce.
As is typical for an order on the emergency docket, justices did not provide a reason for their decision on Monday.
The three liberal justices of the court dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor scolding the majority, made up of the conservative wing of the court, for lifting the order.
“Lifting the District Court’s injunction will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault, and other civil rights violations without the federal resources Congress intended,” Sotomayor wrote.
“The President must take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not set out to dismantle them,” Sotomayor wrote, adding that Trump was infringing on the separation of powers.
In March, Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “eliminate” the Department of Education. He and other Republicans have argued the agency has too much power over state-level education.
The Department of Education does not control school curriculum, requirements for enrollment or graduation, lesson plans or hiring at public schools, colleges or universities.
It mainly serves in a financial role, providing funding to K-12 schools and providing education assistance for low-income students. In total, department funding amounts to roughly eight percent of school funding.
It also enforces civil rights laws in schools by ensuring that institutions that receive federal funding are abiding by those laws, including those protecting students from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, and more.
While the president needs Congress’s approval to completely shut down the agency, since it was created as an act of Congress in 1979, he can essentially do so but gutting the agency.
A coalition of states, led by New York, sued the administration for trying to reduce the department workforce by 1,378 employees.
In May, District Court Judge Myong Joun sided with the states, saying the administration was effectively trying to dismantle the department without congressional approval by conducting the mass firings.
But Solicitor General John D. Sauer argued those reductions in force were not part of the effort to eliminate the department altogether. Sauer said the government would also experience permanent harm if it was forced to pay the salaries of workers.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, McMahon said she was very “pleased” with the decision.
“This is a real victory I think for the future of American education, and I’m so pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling today,” McMahon told Fox News on Monday. “It just really reemphasized the fact that the president, clearly, of the Untied States is the head of the Executive Branch and he’s the one that has ultimate authority over staffing levels, administrative organization, etc.”
