Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Dismantle Education Department
"The White House is not above the law, and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services, and resources they need to thrive," said one union leader.
A federal judge on Thursday halted the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and ordered that some 1,300 employees who were let go in March be reinstated.
The department can't be shut down without assent from Congress, yet the "record abundantly reveals that defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute," wrote U.S. District Judge Myong Joun.
On March 11, the Trump administration announced it was firing over 1,300 staff, effectively halving the agency when combined with other staff reductions, such as the administration's "Fork in the Road" email, according to court filings.
Then, on March 20, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to begin the process of closing the DOE "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law," and turning over education to the states and local communities.
On Thursday, the court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from carrying out the reductions announced on March 11, and ordered the administration to reinstate those employees. It also bars the Trump administration from implementing the executive order and a related directive given out the following day.
By issuing a preliminary injunction, the court has ruled to keep the status quo in place while the underlying issue is disputed.
The plaintiffs in the suit, who include the Somerville Public School Committee, the Easthampton School District, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFT Massachusetts, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 93, American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), cheered the decision on Thursday.
Ilana Krepchin, chair of the Somerville School Committee, said the group is "deeply encouraged" by the court's decision.
AFT Massachusetts president Jessica Tang said that "the White House is not above the law, and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services, and resources they need to thrive."
"Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration's very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education," added AFT president Randi Weingarten.
In court, the educators, professors, school districts, and unions had argued that by getting rid of the staff required to meet Congress's requirements, the Trump administration was unlawfully abolishing the DOE and its "statutorily mandated" parts. The judge said that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in demonstrating that the Trump administration is effectively undercutting the DOE ability to carry out its statutory duties.
"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," the district court wrote.
The nonprofit legal group Democracy Forward is representing the plaintiffs in court.
