Supreme Court Clears the Education Department to Fire 1,300 Workers and Halve Its Staff

On July 14, 2025, the Supreme Court in McMahon v. New York stayed a district-court injunction that had ordered the Education Department to reinstate roughly 1,300 employees laid off in March 2025, allowing the reduction to take effect while the case proceeds. With buyouts and early retirements, the cuts leave the department at about half its former size. Secretary Linda McMahon had ordered the March layoffs a week after her confirmation, and Trump then signed an executive order directing her to use all available legal authority to wind the department down. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, called the order "indefensible": "When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary's duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it." McMahon called it a "significant win."

The department administers programs Congress created by statute, including Title I aid, federal student loans, special-education enforcement and civil-rights investigations. The dispute is whether staffing cuts of this magnitude amount to a functional repeal of duties only Congress can eliminate.

As with the government-wide layoff order six days earlier, the Court acted on the emergency docket without a merits ruling.