One of the divided US allowed the President to resume the dismantling of the Department of Education, suspending a decision of a lower court that required the reintegration of up to 1,400 employees.
In response to an emergency government request, the judges suspended a decision of a federal district court that claimed that Trump’s “purge” would leave the department unable to fulfill the duties required by US law. The Supreme Court order will be valid as long as the case continues to appeal.
Most of the court did not explain, as usually occurs in emergency requests.
The three liberals of the court disagreed. Judge Sonia Sotomayor wrote on behalf of the group that the high court order “will cause incalculable damages, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students suffer discrimination, sexual aggression and other civil rights violations without the federal resources that Congress intended.”
Last week, a. However, in his July 8 decision, the conservative majority said they were not deciding on the legality of any individual agency plan. Monday’s decision will probably give the Trump government a momentum in defense against legal resources to specific agencies.
The case is the latest to deal with Trump’s authority to dismantle Congress -created entities, including the Consumer Financial Protection Office, the US Agency for International Development, and the US Institute of Peace.
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced on March 11 that the department was through a staff reduction. Trump followed with an executive order on March 20 that said McMahon should “at the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary measures to facilitate the closure of the Education Department.”
The effort is being contested in two lawsuits, one driven mainly by states led by Democrats and another presented by various public school systems of Massachusetts and Unions.
The office of the New York Attorney General, who led the state coalition that filed one of the lawsuits, and a White House spokesman did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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US district judge Myong Joun in Boston decided in May that staff cuts would probably paralyze the department. ” He said contestors would probably be successful in showing that Trump was effectively dissolving the department by dismissing his employees, closing regional offices, and transferring programs to other federal agencies.
“A department without enough employees to perform duties mandated by law is not a de facto department,” wrote Joun. “This court cannot be asked to close their eyes while departmental employees are continuously fired and units are transferred until the department becomes a shell of itself.”
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