A federal judge in Boston delivered a major legal blow to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, halting further action and ordering the reinstatement of hundreds of employees terminated in recent mass layoffs. The Trump administration vowed to appeal the ruling.
The decision, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, according to a report, grants a preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s March initiative to advance Trump’s long-standing pledge to shut down the federal education agency, an effort the court found may be unlawful.
The ruling stems from two lawsuits merged into a single case: one brought by school districts in Somerville and Easthampton, Massachusetts, alongside the American Federation of Teachers and other education advocates; the other filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general. Both suits argued that the administration’s actions amounted to an illegal effort to close the department without congressional approval.
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Judge Joun agreed the plaintiffs presented compelling evidence that the layoffs undermined the department’s congressional mandates, responsibilities that include overseeing special education programs, distributing student financial aid, and enforcing civil rights protections in schools.
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In his order, Joun wrote that the plaintiffs had presented 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.”
He further dismissed the administration’s characterization of the effort as mere restructuring: “Layoffs of that scale will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true.”
Shortly after the court’s decision, the administration filed an appeal. White House spokesperson Madi Biedermann responded sharply, saying, “Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people.”
Joun’s ruling requires the department to reverse the mass dismissals carried out after the March 11 announcement, which resulted in the termination of approximately 1,300 employees. Additional staffing reductions through buyouts and the dismissal of probationary staff have cut the department’s workforce nearly in half, from about 4,100 when Trump took office.
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Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward and a legal representative for the Massachusetts plaintiffs, welcomed the decision: “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.”
Echoing that sentiment, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the ruling was “a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.”
Despite the court’s order, the administration maintains that the layoffs were about streamlining operations, not an outright dismantling of the department. While President Trump has called for its closure, officials noted that such a step would ultimately require congressional action.
Acknowledging potential disruptions, the administration noted that restructuring efforts “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but reiterated that it remains “committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.”
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