Supreme Court clears the way for sweeping cuts at Education Department

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
July 15, 2025

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to make deep cuts to U.S. Department of Education personnel after it lifted lower court injunctions that had blocked the cuts.

The court granted the emergency relief sought by the administration without comment, as is typical in its orders.

But in a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the cuts — firing almost 1,400 department employees without warning — amounted to shutting down the agency by crippling its ability to do its job. Only Congress can shut down the agency, she said, calling the majority’s decision to lift the injunction “indefensible.”

“It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out,” wrote Sotomayor, who was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “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.”

The Trump administration argued that its plan to slash staffing at the department fell within the president’s authority to streamline operations at executive agencies and eliminate “discretionary functions” that he thought were best left to the states.

Despite what critics claimed, the administration said in its emergency appeal to the Supreme Court that it “has been crystal clear in acknowledging that only Congress can eliminate the Department of Education,” and the planned cuts kept enough staff to “continue fulfilling statutorily mandated functions … [that] in its judgment, are necessary for those tasks.”

Maryland joins 24 states suing White House over refusal to release $6.8 billion in school funds

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon welcomed the ruling, which she said allows the department to “carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most – to students, parents, and teachers.”

But Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) called the court’s decision “disastrous.”

“It allows mass layoffs of the dedicated civil servants at the Department of Education and puts our children’s future in jeopardy,” Alsobrooks said in a text message. “The investments we make in education now impact the future of our country — we must keep fighting for our children to get the education they deserve.”

President Donald Trump (R) had campaigned on a promise of eliminating the department, and Secretary Linda McMahon called the job cuts the “first step on the road to total shutdown” of the department.

Those cuts, announced on March 11, “eliminated whole offices and teams within the Department” without notice, according to Sotomayor, and the more than 1,378 employees targeted were immediately denied access to their work files, prohibiting any handoff of responsibilities to the remaining workers.

The job cuts were quickly challenged by Democratic attorneys general Maryland and 19 other states —  Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — as well as the District of Columbia.

A second lawsuit was subsequently filed by the American Federation of Teachers, its Massachusetts chapter, AFSCME Council 93, the American Association of University Professors, the Service Employees International Union and two school districts in Massachusetts.

The two lawsuits were combined, and on May 22 U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun of Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction. Joun agreed with the plaintiffs that the action amounted to dismantling the department without congressional approval, violating the separation of powers.

He ordered the reinstatement of the fired workers and other efforts to return the department “to the status quo prior to January 20, 2025,” the date of Trump’s inauguration. He also prohibited Trump and McMahon from taking any actions to enact a March 20 Trump executive order on “Closing the Department of Education and Returning Authority to the States.”

The government appealed, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Joun’s order, saying the government had done little to defend itself. The prompted the emergency request that the Supreme Court granted Monday.

Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) said in a text message Monday evening that the ruling “to allow Trump to continue to gut the Department of Education is truly indefensible.”

“Working families — and particularly our Black and brown students — will suffer the most to benefit those who need it least,” Jones’ text said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) noted the that majority did not explain its ruling, that he called a “cavalier and callous approach [that] represents a total disregard for our students and the public education system.”

Paul Lemle, president of the Maryland State Education Association, said in an emailed statement students who receive federal support for special education services, are multilingual learners, or come from “backgrounds of poverty” will hurt by the ruling.

“This is a deeply disappointing decision that will cause more chaos and make it harder for educators, parents, and students to get the support that they need and deserve,” his stement said. “This redoubles the importance of doing all we can in Maryland to strengthen and protect our commitment to our students.”

Sotomayor said the majority’s ruling clears the way for the administration to break the law.

“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” she wrote. “Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department. That decision is indefensible.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.