by Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog
The Supreme Court on Monday granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts that would require the Department of Education to reinstate nearly 1,400 employees who were fired earlier this year as part of the department’s efforts to reduce the size of its workforce. In a brief unsigned ruling, the justices blocked the order issued in May by U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, who had concluded that the Trump administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department” even though in his view it lacked the power to do so.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, in a 19-page opinion that was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor called the court’s decision “indefensible,” writing that it “hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority,” she said, “is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave.”
The court’s order came in a dispute that began shortly after the department’s March 11 announcement of a reduction in force involving 1,378 employees. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press release that the RIF “reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
In an executive order issued nine days later, President Donald Trump instructed McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department. On March 21, he announced that programs for students with special needs and the federal student loan portfolio would be transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration, respectively.
The plaintiffs –
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