Trump administration asks Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at
Education Department in place
[June 07, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration on Friday
asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education
Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of his plan
to dismantle the agency.
The Justice Department’s emergency appeal to the high court said U.S.
District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month
when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly
1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold.
Joun’s order has blocked one of the Republican president’s biggest
campaign promises and effectively stalled the effort to wind down the
department. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold
while the administration appealed.
The judge wrote that the layoffs “will likely cripple the department.”
But Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote on Friday that Joun was
substituting his policy preferences for those of the Trump
administration.
The layoffs help put in the place the “policy of streamlining the
department and eliminating discretionary functions that, in the
administration’s view, are better left to the states,” Sauer wrote.
He also pointed out that the Supreme Court in April voted 5-4 to block
Joun's earlier order seeking to keep in place Education Department
teacher-training grants.
The current case involves two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump’s
plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.
One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in
Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other
education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21
Democratic attorneys general.
The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out
responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support
special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights
laws.
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The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17,
2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Education Department employees who were targeted by the layoffs have
been on paid leave since March, according to a union that represents
some of the agency’s staff. Joun’s order prevents the department
from fully terminating them, but none have been allowed to return to
work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees
Local 252. Without Joun’s order, the workers were scheduled to be
terminated Monday.
The Education Department said Friday it is “actively assessing how
to reintegrate” the employees. A department email sent Friday asked
them to share whether they had gained other employment, saying the
request was meant to “support a smooth and informed return to duty.”
Trump has made it a priority to shut down the Education Department,
though he has acknowledged that only Congress has the authority to
do that. In the meantime, Trump issued a March order directing
Education Secretary Linda McMahon to wind it down “to the maximum
extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
Trump later said the department’s functions will be parceled to
other agencies, suggesting that federal student loans should be
managed by the Small Business Administration and programs involving
students with disabilities would be absorbed by the Department of
Health and Human Services. Those changes have not yet happened.
The president argues that the Education Department has been
overtaken by liberals and has failed to spur improvements to the
nation’s lagging academic scores. He has promised to “return
education to the states.”
Opponents note that K-12 education is already mostly overseen by
states and cities.
Democrats have blasted the Trump administration’s Education
Department budget, which seeks a 15% budget cut including a $4.5
billion cut in K-12 funding as part of the agency’s downsizing.
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