Associated Press
A federal Judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to dismantle the Department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican President’s campaign promises.
The injunction was requested in a lawsuit filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers, along with other education groups.
In their lawsuit, the groups said the layoffs amounted to an illegal shutdown of the Education Department. They said it left the Department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.
In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”
Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department.”
Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.
The Trump administration says the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a Department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.
The administration said restructuring the agency “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but it’s committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
8 comments
Paul Passarelli
May 22, 2025 at 11:49 am
After 60 days those positions are *GONE*.
R Russell
May 22, 2025 at 12:24 pm
Since when does a lower, local, half witted, corrupt court judge have authority over the President’s right to enact his Executive position’s Authority? Answer: only by a DEI or Democrap Judge! Really!!!!! Lying, cheating, stealing and corruption is the only way Dems operate! When will all Americans (that obviously doesn’t include any brain dead Democraps or Foreigners on the Dems’ dole) stop buying the bulshit and turn on NewsMax for the facts!! CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, et. al. are in the tank for Dems and their Socialist agenda!!!!
Linwood Wright
May 22, 2025 at 2:57 pm
“Since when does a lower, local, half witted, corrupt court judge have authority over the President’s right to enact his Executive position’s Authority? ”
Since the creation of our Constitution.
Maybe you should read it?
Phil Ammann
May 22, 2025 at 3:35 pm
Constitutional rights are the same, no matter the jurisdiction. You can’t have Constitutional rights in Florida, which then are rolled back once you cross the the Alabama border. It just doesn’t work that way. And calling the judge names is just childiish.
ScienceBLVR
May 22, 2025 at 12:34 pm
“Nothing is going to change, unless someone does something soon. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better, It’s not” – Dr. Seuss
Ron Ogden
May 22, 2025 at 2:28 pm
Every time a judge acts to thwart the will of the American people, it adds fuel to the call for changes in the law under which that judge acts. No judge runs America. No judge was elected by the people to run America. The president was elected. The president was given the authority, not a judge.
MarvinM
May 22, 2025 at 3:49 pm
The president was elected but that does not mean he wields unlimited power. The president’s power in this country is always checked by the other two coequal branches of our government, the legislative and yes, the judicial.
If a president signs an executive order, that doesn’t mean it’s law. It goes through the judicial system to see if it is constitutional or not. I think that’s a good thing. I want the judicial branch to have the power to curtail a president who is trying to abridge my rights to, for example free speech or habeas corpus.
And you should too.
Father David Patterson
May 22, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Donald Trump is a tyrant, and each and every one of his followers would be Nazi’s in 1938. They would support genocide of the Jews, just like they would support genocide of immigrants today.
Trump supporters claim to be Christians, but they will be having a very difficult conversation with St. Peter one day, just before they are sent to Hell.