Federal judge blocks Trump’s plan to dismantle US DOE

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from firing thousands of employees at the U.S. Department of Education, ruling that the terminations were a thinly veiled effort to dismantle the entire department without congressional approval.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun rejected the administration’s claim that the thousands of terminations announced in March were a bid for “efficiency.” In fact, they had deeply disrupted services for students, families and states, making processes less efficient, the judge said, according to the news website Politico.

Joun said the massive reductions were more clearly aimed at carrying out President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise to eliminate the department altogether — something the judge said would be illegal without congressional approval. Joun noted that Trump issued an executive order in March directing the Secretary of Education to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department.”

“The record abundantly reveals that Defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute,” Joun, a Biden appointee, wrote in an 88-page opinion. “The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true.”

Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association President Osa Tui, Jr. said, “These firings, thousands of miles away from our islands, could have profound detrimental effects on our keiki and the vital services they currently receive. We are glad a judge has put a stop, for now, to these cuts that will harm our public schools.”

“Teachers across Hawaiʻi have told me they are deeply concerned and worried for their most vulnerable student populations,” Tui added.

In addition to blocking the firings, the judge’s order bars the Department of Education from transferring its functions to other agencies and from carrying out Trump’s executive order to close the department altogether. Joun’s order also requires the department to reinstate employees terminated since Trump’s inauguration to “restore the Department to the status quo such that it is able to carry out its statutory functions.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education attacked Joun as an “unelected judge with a political axe to grind,” calling the mass termination “obviously lawful.” The administration on Thursday took initial steps to appeal Joun’s ruling, Politico reported.

Joun’s order is the latest bid by the courts to stave off some of the most extensive and abrupt efforts by the Trump administration to unilaterally slash and remake federal agencies. And it’s also the latest in a flurry of rulings aimed specifically at the Department of Education and its contractors, state-level affiliates and related programs.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on Wednesday ordered the department to restore grant funding that had been awarded to the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit that receives federal funds to help schools further desegregation efforts dating back to the 1960s. The Trump administration slashed that program as part of its efforts to eliminate “DEI” programs, or those aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion, Politico said.

On Thursday, a deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court blocked the creation of the nation’s first religious charter school in Oklahoma, leaving in place a state Supreme Court ruling that declared the school violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

National Education Association President Becky Pringle said, “We are gratified that the Supreme Court did not take the radical step of upending public education by requiring states to have religious charter schools.”

Every week, the NEA compiles the latest information on the Trump administration’s attacks on public education and inclusive policies, many of which often directly conflict with existing law. Read the updates and analysis from NEA attorneys, who weigh in on the Trump administration’s recent education-related actions and court fights against them.