Legal Battles Over Education Department Layoffs
The Trump administration's efforts to significantly reduce the workforce of the Department of Education (ED) faced considerable legal challenges. A coalition of educators, school districts, and unions contested Secretary of Education McMahon’s reduction-in-force, arguing that it would dismantle the department and disrupt crucial services. This article examines the legal proceedings, arguments, and outcomes of these challenges.
Initial Injunction and Legal Arguments
The coalition, including the Somerville Public School Committee, Easthampton School District, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) - Massachusetts, AFT, AFSCME Council 93, American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), challenged Secretary of Education McMahon’s massive reduction-in-force. Democracy Forward represented this group in Somerville Public Schools v. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, seeking to block Trump's executive order to close the Education Department.
The plaintiffs argued that the layoffs were so extensive that the Education Department would not be able to perform its duties under the law. They asserted that the executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally dismantle the ED without an act of Congress. The lawsuit also claimed that the mass layoffs violated the Administrative Procedures Act.
AFT President Randi Weingarten stated, "This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity. For America to build a brighter future, we must all take more responsibility, not less, for the success of our children."
District Court Judge Myong J. Joun wrote, "A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department's employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself." Joun also barred Trump from moving management of the entire federal student loan portfolio and the department's "special needs" programs to other federal agencies.
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The district court granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the department to reinstate the fired employees and halt implementation of the reduction-in-force. Judge Myong J. Joun found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on constitutional grounds.
The Trump Administration's Defense
The Trump administration argued that the reductions were intended to make the department more efficient. In the administration’s request to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the harms the various plaintiffs had described were largely hypothetical, that they had not shown the department wasn’t fulfilling its duties, and that they didn’t have standing to sue because layoffs primarily affect department employees, not states, school districts, and education organizations.
Sauer further argued that the injunction violates the separation of powers, putting the judicial branch in charge of employment decisions that are the purview of the executive branch. "The injunction rests on the untenable assumption that every terminated employee is necessary to perform the Department of Education’s statutory functions," Sauer wrote in a court filing. "That injunction effectively appoints the district court to a Cabinet role and bars the Executive Branch from terminating anyone."
Despite these arguments, Judge Joun wrote that he saw "no evidence that the [reduction-in-force] has actually made the Department more efficient."
Supreme Court Intervention
The US Supreme Court allowed the Department of Education to proceed with layoffs of roughly 1,400 employees. The court granted the administration’s request to lift a lower court injunction that had blocked the firing of more than 2,000 department employees-roughly half the agency’s workforce.
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Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, called the action “indefensible” and cast it as allowing President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “gut” the department’s workforce. “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,” Sotomayor said.
The Supreme Court's order in McMahon v. New York is not a final ruling on the merits, but it removed a barrier that had blocked the administration from taking its first steps toward dismantling the department.
Impact on Department Operations
The reduction-in-force, announced on March 11, terminated the roles of more than 1,300 employees. At the same time, nearly 600 more had chosen to leave by resigning or retiring. The Department of Education had 4,133 employees; that left roughly 2,180 remaining staff - roughly half the department's size in January.
Critics questioned whether the department would be able to perform its core functions after the administration announced its plans for mass agency layoffs. The layoffs hit the Office for Civil Rights, Federal Student Aid, and the Institute of Education Sciences particularly hard. These agencies are responsible for federally mandated work within the Education Department.
Internal developments leading up to the mass layoffs reflected a disregard for the department’s statutory duties, Sotomayor said. Certain units were asked to prepare lists of their statutorily required duties, but the due date was two days after the department carried out the layoffs.
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“The terminations eliminated whole offices and teams within the department,” she added, citing the dismantling of the entire Office of English Language Acquisition, the layoffs of Office of General Counsel workers who dealt with K-12 and special education matters, and the closure of seven of the 12 regional offices of the Office for Civil Rights.
Concerns from Education Stakeholders
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) reported operational delays, breakdowns in federal support systems, and an erosion of communication channels with the Department following the staff reductions in March. NASFAA represents more than 29,000 financial aid professionals at approximately 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country.
American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts President Jessica Tang noted that "While today’s decision will provide some relief, the damage is already being felt in our schools - by our students, especially the most vulnerable, and our educators."
AFSCME Council 93 Executive Director Mark Bernard said, "This decision gives public schools important relief from losing critical support, which the Department of Education provides. Thousands of families across Massachusetts depend on the vital services and protections under the IDEA Act, which ensures educational support for our most vulnerable children."
The Aftermath and Reintegration Efforts
Following the court orders, the Education Department was tasked with reinstating the laid-off employees. Chief of Staff Rachel Oglesby said an “ad hoc committee of senior leadership” is meeting weekly to figure out where employees might park and where they should report to work. Since the layoffs, the department has closed regional offices, consolidated offices in three Washington, D.C. buildings into one, reduced its contracts for parking space, and discontinued an interoffice shuttle.
Brittany Coleman, chief steward for AFGE Local 252 and an attorney in the Office for Civil Rights, found these updates “laughable.” “If you are really willing to do what the court is telling you to do, then your working group would have figured out a way to get us our laptops,” she said.
States' Opposition
New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in filing a motion for a preliminary injunction as part of their lawsuit to stop the dismantling of the Department of Education (ED). The coalition included the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
Attorney General James stated, “The Trump administration’s illegal cuts to the Department of Education are an attack on our educators, our schools, and our students. We sued to stop Trump from dismantling the Department of Education, and today we are seeking a court order to protect students and their families. As a proud product of New York public schools, I will continue to defend our schools and all those who depend on them.”
The attorneys general argued that the Trump administration’s attacks on ED have already had serious consequences for families and students throughout the country. Mass layoffs of ED staff have led to the closure of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights locations throughout the country, including in New York. Critical funding for state school systems has also been delayed. $363 million in federal funds for the New York State Education Department have been delayed due to layoffs and other changes the Trump administration has made at ED.
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