WASHINGTON, D.C. (LOOTPRESS) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with sweeping changes to the Department of Education, including massive staff reductions and a controversial shift in oversight of the federal student loan system.
The court lifted a lower court injunction that had temporarily halted the administration’s actions. That injunction, issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts, had blocked the mass firings of nearly half the department’s workforce in March and other restructuring efforts. The judge had ruled the moves likely violated federal law and could not be justified solely on grounds of “efficiency.”
Although the high court’s conservative majority offered no explanation for its decision, the three liberal justices dissented. In a sharply worded opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that lifting the injunction could cause widespread harm to students and schools nationwide.
“The Department is responsible for providing critical funding and services to millions of students and scores of schools across the country,” Sotomayor wrote. “Lifting the District Court’s injunction will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault, and other civil rights violations without the federal resources Congress intended.”
Sotomayor also criticized the ruling as a dangerous erosion of constitutional checks and balances. “The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” she added.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon welcomed the decision, saying the department will now resume its reorganization plans, which include returning more control of education to the states and dramatically reducing the size of the federal agency.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States…has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.
McMahon praised the ruling as a win for the administration, though she lamented that it required Supreme Court intervention to move forward with reforms that, she said, reflect the will of the voters.
Legal challenges to the Trump administration’s education overhaul continue in lower courts, even as the agency proceeds with its controversial changes.
