Donald Trump is reeling in the victories. They’re coming in at an unprecedented clip.
And these Supreme Court Justices just gave Trump a victory that changed the course of his presidency.
Supreme Court Clears Path for Trump’s Education Department Overhaul
In a landmark decision on Monday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration authority to move forward with laying off more than 1,300 Department of Education employees, advancing its plan to dismantle the agency entirely. The ruling, issued without a signature, struck down a Boston federal judge’s order that had paused the firings and required rehiring those already terminated.
The Court’s three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor issuing a sharp rebuke. She warned that allowing these dismissals “hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out,” posing a “grave” risk to the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Sotomayor criticized the majority for being “either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve.” The case now heads back to the Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
Roots of the Legal Battle
The dispute originated on May 22, when US District Judge Myong Joun ruled that such sweeping layoffs needed congressional approval, dismissing the administration’s claim of a mere departmental reorganization. Joun cautioned that the firings would “will likely cripple the department.”
The layoffs began on March 11, with 1,315 employees let go as part of a strategy to halve the department’s workforce.
Nine days later, on March 20, President Trump signed an executive order requiring Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”
McMahon celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling as a triumph for reform. “Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” she said.
She called the decision a “significant win for students and families,” lamenting that the nation’s highest court had to intervene to enable “the reforms Americans elected [Trump] to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.”
Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies. While…
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) July 14, 2025
Congressional Hurdles Ahead
Shuttering the Department of Education outright would require Congress’s approval, a steep challenge given the GOP’s narrow control of both chambers and the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster hurdle.
Solicitor General John Sauer had slammed Joun’s earlier ruling, arguing it wrested “an entire Cabinet department from presidential control,” a decision he said belonged solely to the Executive Branch under the Constitution.
A group of Democratic-led states sued the administration, asserting that Trump overstepped his authority with layoffs aimed at enabling the “closure of the Department of Education.”
As this legal saga unfolds, the Supreme Court’s decision marks a critical moment in the administration’s push to redefine federal education policy.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 14, 2025
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
