“Indefensible”: Supreme Court permits mass Education Department firings

The U.S.Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to proceed with mass firings in the U.S. Department of Education on Monday. In an unsigned order, the conservative high court struck a lower-court ruling that had paused the president’s plan.

The majority did not explain its decision, but Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. In the dissent, Sotomayor called the actions “indefensible” and a critical blow to the powers given to Congress by the Constitution.

“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. Unable to join in this misuse of our emergency docket, I respectfully dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.

Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon praised the Court’s ruling as a “significant win for students and families.”

“The U.S. Department of Education will now deliver on its mandate to restore excellence in American education. We will 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,” McMahon wrote.

McMahon told Fox News that the ruling was “a real victory for the future of American education.”

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued an injunction against Trump’s executive order that would dismantle the Education Department in May.

“The record abundantly reveals that the defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute,” Joun wrote.

It’s the latest victory for the conservative high court, which has already issued a slew of decisions that benefit the Trump administration. Last week, the Court permitted the administration to continue mass firings at federal agencies. In June, the Court allowed third country deportations – meaning migrants could be deported to countries other than their own. Also in June, SCOTUS paved the way for Trump’s administration to restrict birthright citizenship.

“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 wrote on Monday.