SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
The Supreme Court says it will allow the Trump administration to resume its dismantling of the Department of Education.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This is all a little complicated, but the court's conservative majority overruled the lower court. The lower court had temporarily blocked the administration from firing people. Congress created the Department of Education by law, and the president had promised to shut it down without any change in that law. That is why opponents sued. The Supreme Court order allows the administration to act as it wants while the underlying lawsuit works through the courts.
MCCAMMON: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner has been following all of this and joins us now. Good morning, Cory.
CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: So tell us about this ruling. What did the justices say?
TURNER: Well, they didn't say much. It was an unsigned ruling. It came with no explanation, which is common with the court's shadow docket. What we know is the conservative justices agreed to lift a lower court's injunction, thereby allowing the Trump administration to resume big staffing cuts at the department. Now, we did hear from one of the liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote a scathing dissent. She called the majority's decision indefensible, and she wrote, quote, "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."
On the other hand, President Trump cheered the ruling in a post on Truth Social last night, writing, quote, the "court has handed a major victory to parents and students across the country by declaring the Trump administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education back to the states."
MCCAMMON: And, Cory, I just want to step back for a second. Can you remind us quickly how we got here?
TURNER: Yeah, you probably remember in March, Trump issued an executive order calling for the closure of the U.S. Department of Education. The department had already been offering buyouts and early retirement and also in March announced a huge reduction in force, laying off roughly 1,400 employees. We're talking about the department being cut roughly in half, and it was in response to these dramatic cuts that two lawsuits were filed. They were eventually merged into one because they both argued that Congress, as we said in the intro, created the department. Only Congress can dismantle it. And the department is required by law to do a bunch of pretty important things that it cannot do with only half its staff. In May, a federal judge agreed issuing a preliminary injunction, forcing the administration to pause its cutting and reinstate those 1,400 employees it had laid off. That order infuriated the Trump administration, which has argued forcefully the president absolutely has the power to make these cuts. So they asked the Supreme Court to step in at the last minute and lift this injunction as part of its shadow docket.
MCCAMMON: Right. So lots of twists and turns, but for now, the Supreme Court has agreed with the administration. What does this mean for the Education Department now?
TURNER: Well, practically, it means those roughly 1,400 department workers will officially be losing their jobs. It will also mean the work they did may not get done, from helping local schools best support kids with disabilities and children living in poverty to enforcing civil rights laws to making sure the federal student loan program functions for borrowers. Meanwhile, we have to keep in mind this case is still technically working its way through the lower courts. What the Supreme Court has done is to step in, in the middle of things, and allow the dismantling of the department to continue even though the lower courts are still deciding if that dismantling is legal.
MCCAMMON: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thank you so much.
TURNER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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