Ancil
The Trump administration’s efforts to abolish the Department of Education have been thwarted by a federal judge in Boston.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ordered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from terminating half of the employees at the Department of Education.
The Biden-appointed Judge Joun’s judgment also forbids the Department of Education from giving the Small Business Administration control over federal student loan administration.
The ruling is the first time a federal judge has ruled that the extensive reforms made to the Department of Education by the Trump administration are illegal.
The order temporarily halts the Trump administration’s efforts to transfer federal student loan obligations, fire over 2,000 Department of Education employees, and carry out the president’s executive order from March 20 to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”
The Department of Education’s deputy assistant secretary for communications, Madi Biedermann, referred to Joun as a far-left judge who “overstepped” his jurisdiction and stated that the agency’s reduction-in-force was legal.
“President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind,” Biedermann wrote in a statement to ABC News. “This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families. We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis.”
Last month, a consortium comprising schools, organizations, and a number of state attorneys general contested Trump’s attempts to shrink the Department of Education, claiming the president cannot shut down a federal agency established by Congress on his own.
The Trump administration’s attorneys contended that the department’s reduction efforts would increase its efficiency and were distinct from Trump’s promise to abolish it.
Judge Joun didn’t believe it. His choice was a scathing critique of the Trump administration’s assertion that the Department of Education’s recent reforms are intended to increase efficiency rather than fulfill Trump’s promise to completely abolish the agency.
“The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true,” he stated.
Judge Joun noted that the modifications made by Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon made it “effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutorily mandated functions.”
“Though Trump has the authority to remove executive officers, the president does not have the power to dismantle entire federal departments outright,” he wrote. He also questioned the assertion that his executive efforts and the legislative attempt to dismantle the Department of Education were distinct.
“Not only is there no evidence that Defendants are pursuing a ‘legislative goal’ or otherwise working with Congress to reach a resolution, but there is also no evidence that the RIF has actually made the Department more efficient. Rather, the record is replete with evidence of the opposite,” the judge wrote, referring to the “reduction in force” firings.
“Consolidated Plaintiffs have demonstrated that the Department will not be able to carry out its statutory functions — and in some cases, is already unable to do so — and Defendants have proffered no evidence to the contrary,” he stated.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented a number of the plaintiffs, said, “Today’s order means that the Trump administration’s disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated.” “Instead of taking a wrecking ball to our nation’s best values and our chance at a better future, this administration should be focused on how to improve education and opportunities for all.”
“Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration’s very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “The vast majority of Americans and states like Massachusetts, with the highest NAEP scores, want to keep the education department because it ensures all kids, not just some, can get a shot at a better life.”
