The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s pause on President Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal government through mass firings at various agencies.
The unsigned order from the high court allows the Trump administration to carry out the president’s Feb. 13 executive order demanding “large-scale reductions in force” to take place across government.
The ruling – the latest in a string of victories for Trump in the Supreme Court – was supported by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and it overrides Northern California District Judge Susan Illston’s May 9 order freezing the administration’s plans for layoffs and program closures.
“Because the Government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful — and because the other factors bearing on whether to grant a stay are satisfied — we grant the application,” the Supreme Court order stated.
“We express no view on the legality of any Agency [Reduction in Force] and Reorganization Plan produced or approved pursuant to the Executive Order and Memorandum,” the court noted.
The Supreme Court determined that Illston, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, blocked Trump’s order based on her “view about the legality” of it and “not on any assessment of the plans themselves” – which the justices noted were “not before this Court.”
In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson charged that “temporary, practical, harm-reducing preservation of the status quo was no match for this Court’s demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”
“This executive action promises mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it,” she warned.
“Under our Constitution, Congress has the power to establish administrative agencies and detail their functions,” Jackson wrote, arguing that Trump should have first obtained authorization from Congress before attempting to reorganize federal agencies.
Meanwhile, Sotomayor noted that she agreed with Jackson that Trump “cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent with congressional mandates,” but indicated its too early to determine if the administration plans to downsize the federal workforce in a manner that is unlawful.
“The plans themselves are not before this Court, at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law,” Sotomayor wrote, concurring with the majority. “I join the Court’s stay because it leaves the District Court free to consider those questions in the first instance.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce have been overseen by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formerly led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The labor unions and nonprofit groups sued to stop the mass layoffs from taking place, which would affect the federal workers at the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, the Interior, State, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs, as well as the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.
Today, the Supreme Court stopped lawless lower courts from restricting President Trump’s authority over federal personnel — another Supreme Court victory thanks to [Justice Department] attorneys,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X, reacting to the order.
“Now, federal agencies can become more efficient than ever before,” she added.
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