Supreme Court Greenlights Trump Plan to Slash Education Department Workforce

In a pivotal ruling on July 14, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with firing hundreds of Education Department employees, enabling broader efforts to dismantle the agency.

The decision, delivered as an unsigned order, split the justices along ideological lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting. Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a scathing 19-page dissent, warning that the ruling gives the president unchecked power to bypass Congress by eliminating the very personnel responsible for implementing federal laws.

“The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve,” Sotomayor wrote. “The threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is great.”

The ruling follows the court’s earlier decision that cleared the way for similar mass staffing reductions across other federal agencies.

President Donald Trump, now in his second term, has made dismantling the Department of Education a central campaign promise, aiming to shift education policy control to the states. The administration argues that streamlining federal oversight will reduce bureaucracy and increase local autonomy.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed the decision, stating: “The President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies.”

McMahon emphasized that the department will continue to fulfill essential functions required by law, even as it moves to cut nearly half of its workforce, reducing staff from over 4,000 to around 2,183 employees.

The initial dismissals began in March, with over 1,300 workers placed on administrative leave. A judge later intervened to halt their removal, citing disruption to legally mandated programs. States, school districts, and teachers’ unions warned the mass layoffs threatened core federal education services.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun had previously ruled that such drastic restructuring required congressional approval, and the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. The appeals court found that eliminating key employees had a “disabling impact” on the department’s capacity to function.

Despite this, the Supreme Court’s latest ruling permits the firings to move forward while litigation continues.

The Justice Department defended the administration’s actions, arguing that executive agencies have constitutional discretion over staffing decisions, especially where federal functions are being reassigned. The administration plans to transfer student loan responsibilities to the Small Business Administration and shift special education services to the Department of Health and Human Services.

States challenging the move say critical services are already deteriorating. For instance, college financial aid certifications and data systems used for funding allocations have been gutted, New York and other plaintiffs told the court.

Legal experts and advocacy groups fear irreversible harm. “It will be effectively impossible to undo much of the damage caused,” warned the Democracy Forward Foundation, which represents the challengers. CEO Skye Perryman vowed to “aggressively pursue every legal option” to preserve public education access.

While the court’s ruling marks a significant victory for the Trump administration, the legal battle is far from over.