On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed sweeping staffing cuts at the Department of Education, ordered by President Donald Trump, effectively greenlighting efforts to dismantle the federal agency. The court issued a brief, unsigned order without providing an explanation, splitting along ideological lines with the three liberal justices dissenting.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a forceful 19-page dissent, warning that the ruling could have dangerous implications for the separation of powers. “The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve,” she wrote. “But either way, the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is great.”
The decision lifts a lower court injunction that had temporarily blocked the administration from laying off more than 1,300 Education Department employees—a move critics say would severely undermine the agency’s ability to carry out federal law. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun had ruled in May that such drastic reductions could not be made without congressional approval, stating that the firings “prevented the federal government from effectively implementing legally required programs and services.”
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upheld Joun’s ruling, finding that the administration had failed to rebut “record-based findings about the disabling impact” of the cuts.
Nevertheless, the high court’s decision allows the administration to proceed—for now—with efforts to scale back the department. President Trump, who vowed during his campaign to eliminate the Department of Education, signed an executive order in March directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin its closure.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States… has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels,” McMahon said in a statement following the ruling. She added the agency would continue fulfilling its legal duties while “empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”
Critics argue that the administration’s actions have already disrupted vital services, including oversight of federal student aid and data collection used to distribute billions in funding. Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement, “We will aggressively pursue every legal option as this case proceeds to ensure that all children in this country have access to the public education they deserve.”
While the case remains active in lower courts, the Supreme Court’s order raises serious concerns about executive overreach and the future of federal education policy.
