Trump Gets Green Light to Dismantle Education Department After Supreme Court Ruling

On July 14, the Trump administration was granted permission by an ideologically split Supreme Court to terminate hundreds of Education Department employees and carry out other steps to dissolve the agency.

The decision, which was the latest high court victory for President Donald Trump, was opposed by the court’s three liberal justices.

The majority gave Trump the authority to revoke legislation approved by Congress “by firing all those necessary to carry them out,” according to Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“The majority is either naive or willfully blind to the implications of its ruling,” Sotomayor said in her 19-page dissent, “but in either case, the separation of powers in our Constitution is seriously threatened.” “

The brief, unsigned order did not provide an explanation for the majority’s judgment.

A week after the court gave the administration permission to proceed with significant staff reductions at several agencies, the decision was made.

Trump is making an effort to carry out his campaign pledge to abolish the Education Department and provide state authority over school policy.

“Today, the Supreme Court once again affirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about the day-to-day operations of federal agencies, administrative structure, and staffing levels,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon in a statement.

The administration will continue to carry out the legal obligations pertaining to education, she said, “empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”

At the request of Democratic-led states, school districts, and teachers’ unions, a judge stepped in and stopped paying the Education Department employees who had been placed on administrative leave in March and were scheduled to stop on June 9.

As per the American Federation of Government Employees, the government has been spending over $7 million every month to continue paying the workers who are still unable to work.

According to U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts, the White House’s decision to terminate over 1,300 employees has hindered the federal government’s ability to carry out lawfully mandated programs and services. Congress, which established the department in 1979, must approve such modifications, Joun ruled in May.

That ruling was supported by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Boston. The government did not present any evidence to refute Joun’s “record-based findings about the disabling impact” of the mass terminations and the transfer of some functions to other agencies, the court said.

The Justice Department stated that the executive branch, not the courts, has the power to determine the number of employees required by the Constitution.

“The Department of Education has decided that many discretionary functions are better left to the States and that it can carry out its statutorily mandated functions with a pared-down staff,” Solicitor General John Sauer informed the Supreme Court.

In March, Trump issued an executive order instructing McMahon to “facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”

Despite the federal government’s lack of authority over school curricula, Republicans have long charged that it controls too much of state and local education policy.

McMahon declared that massive layoffs and voluntary buyouts would destroy around half of the agency’s employment. That would have brought the personnel down to 2,183 employees from 4,133 when Trump started his second term in January.

According to the administration, special education services should be transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and student loans should be taken up by student loans.

On May 22, Joun issued an order requiring the agency to reinstate sacked employees and prohibiting the administration from shifting those tasks.

According to the appeals court, Trump can reduce the number of employees in the Education Department compared to the previous administration, but not to the point where the department is unable to carry out its mandate from Congress.

According to states contesting the actions, the administration eliminated almost all of the employees that verify whether colleges and universities are eligible for federal student aid programs. The Supreme Court was told by attorneys for New York and other states that it also destroyed the department that handled the data used to distribute billions of dollars to states.

Lawyers for the Democracy Forward Foundation had urged the Supreme Court that “it will be effectively impossible to undo much of the damage caused” unless the firings were reversed while the courts considered whether the administration was acting lawfully.

Following the court’s ruling, Democracy Forward’s president and CEO, Skye Peryman, stated that the organization 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.”

As the case progresses, the Justice Department informed the Supreme Court that the government will incur more damages from having to rehire the employees than from the challengers’ claims of reduced department services. The challenge was also contested by the department on procedural grounds.

About The Author