Supreme Court Allows Trump To Move Forward With Education Department Cuts

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to move ahead with mass layoffs at the Department of Education, CNN reported via John Fritze, Devan Cole, and Sunlen Serfaty.

The department has already sent notices to employees stating that layoffs would proceed and take effect on August 1. I Photo: Thomas Hawk Flickr

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of teachers' unions, school districts, state governments, and education advocacy groups. Within two hours of the court’s decision, the department sent notices to employees stating that layoffs would proceed and take effect on August 1.

“They seem to be emboldened by the recent Supreme Court decisions that have permitted the Trump administration’s actions which other courts had previously stayed,” said Andrew Twinamatsiko, director of the Center for Health Policy and the Law at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University.

In last week’s related ruling, the justices allowed federal agencies to implement their reduction-in-force (RIF) plans, staying a lower court order that had temporarily blocked President Trump from making such cuts without congressional approval.

However, the Court emphasized that it was not ruling on the legality of any specific agency’s RIF or reorganization plan—leaving open the possibility of future legal challenges if such reductions are found to impair the department’s ability to fulfill its legal obligations.