Federal Layoffs: Supreme Court Rulings Clear Way for Cuts

The U.S. Supreme Court is letting federal layoffs move forward, in a pair of rulings. 

First, the Supreme Court lifted a temporary pause on mass layoffs across the federal government, clearing the way for President Trump to downsize the federal workforce.

The layoffs were held up after a federal district judge in California ruled in favor of groups who challenged the president’s reduction in force order. An appeals court let that stand, but the Supreme Court found differently. 

"Because the government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful—and because the other factors bearing on whether to grant a stay are satisfied— we grant the application," the majority wrote for the court. 

No specific cuts were in front of the justices. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, decrying the “court's demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this president's legally dubious actions in an emergency posture."

Department of Education Cuts

In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration to move ahead with plans to cut nearly 1,400 workers at the Department of Education, which were blocked by a federal judge in Boston. 

The Trump Administration hailed the move.

“The Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. 

Attorneys for the Massachusetts groups that sued say their lawsuit will continue. 

Justices Jackson, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissented. 

State Department Layoffs 

Meanwhile, mass layoffs are underway at the State Department. Reduction in force (RIF) notices were sent to about 1,100 civil servants and 250 foreign service officers stationed in the U.S., with plans to cut its workforce further.

Foreign service officers who received RIF notices will be separated in 120 days, while civil service officers will be separated in 60 days. 

Many of the cuts were in offices that focus on refugees, human rights, and foreign assistance programs, including nearly all civil service offices in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration’s office of admissions.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's entire global programs office, which handles foreign assistance, was also let go.

Democrats in Congress, former State Department officials, and labor unions are among those criticizing the cuts. 

"During a time of increasingly complex and wide-spread challenges to U.S. national security, this administration should be strengthening our diplomatic corps—an irreplaceable instrument of U.S. power and leadership—not weakening it," wrote Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.