On July 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with laying off nearly half of the staff at the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). The decision in New York v. McMahon enables the USDE’s reduction in force (RIF) initiated in March as the original question of the legality of the RIF to works its way through the lower courts.
The order allowing RIF to continue was met with dissent from justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who called the majority’s decision “indefensible” in their 18-page dissent.
The decision is seen as a significant victory for the Trump administration as it seeks to close the USDE to the greatest extent possible. In fact, the layoffs leave the USDE with only about 2,183 employees out of its previous approximately 4,133.
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