On Monday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to overturn a judge’s order requiring the reinstatement of approximately 1,400 previously fired Department of Education employees as part of the president’s plan to dismantle the agency.
The federal administration argued that US District Judge Myong Joun had “overstepped his bounds” by issuing a preliminary injunction last month that sought to block its plans.
Solicitor General John Sauer noted that the Supreme Court had recently overturned another order issued by Joun against the administration, relating to certain education grants. “For the second time in three months, the same district court has thwarted the Executive Branch’s authority to manage the Department of Education despite lacking jurisdiction to second-guess the Executive’s internal management decisions,” Sauer wrote in his June 6 high court application.
The legal action in the Supreme Court allows the administration to resume work on closing the department, one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises. In a post published Monday evening on his social media accounts, the president said the Supreme Court “has handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country.” He added that the decision will allow his administration to begin the “very important process” of returning many of the department’s functions “BACK TO THE STATES.”
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious”, Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated, “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.”
The judges’ decision was not unanimous. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor voted against the administration’s request. “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,” Sotomayor explained.
According to a union representing some of the agency’s staff, the Department of Education employees targeted for layoffs have been on paid leave since March.
Joun’s order had prevented the department from permanently laying them off, although no one was allowed to return to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. Without Joun, the workers would have been laid off in early June. The Department of Education said in early June that it was “actively evaluating how to reinstate” the employees. In an email from the department, they were asked to report whether they had found other employment, stating that the request was intended to facilitate a smooth and informed return to service.
