Judge Halts Trump’s Effort to Dismantle Education Department, Orders Reinstatement of Laid-Off Workers

In a landmark ruling on Thursday, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, appointed by President Biden, issued a preliminary injunction preventing the administration from firing thousands of department employees and transferring key functions such as federal student loan management to another agency.

The judge’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts school districts, the American Federation of Teachers, and 21 Democratic state attorneys general. They argued that the administration’s actions amounted to an unlawful closure of the department, a power reserved for Congress alone. Judge Joun agreed, stating, “The record abundantly reveals that defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute.”

President Trump has repeatedly criticized the department as inefficient and accused it of failing to improve educational outcomes despite significant federal funding. In March, he signed an executive order to begin dismantling the agency, which led to a large-scale layoff affecting nearly half of the department’s 4,000 employees.

The court order requires the administration to reinstate the roughly 1,300 workers laid off and prohibits further actions to reduce the department’s workforce or transfer its functions. The ruling underscores the necessity of congressional approval to abolish or significantly restructure federal agencies.

The administration expressed its intention to challenge the ruling, with a spokesperson calling the judge’s intervention an egregious overreach. Meanwhile, education advocates hailed the decision as a crucial defense of federal education services and protections for students nationwide.