A federal judge in Massachusetts has issued a sweeping injunction halting President Trump's executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, ordering the administration to immediately reinstate over 1,300 employees terminated earlier this year. The ruling also blocks further implementation of plans to transfer the agency's core functions-such as managing federal student loans and special education programs-to other departments.
U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun, in his Thursday ruling, wrote that the administration had attempted to dismantle the department without congressional approval. "A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all," Joun stated. "This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department's employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself."
The judge found that the Trump administration's reduction-in-force (RIF), which cut more than 1,300 positions from a preexisting workforce of 4,133, was designed to render the department inoperable. He cited "irreparable harm" to students and educators due to financial uncertainty, reduced access to information, and loss of vital services.
"There is nothing in the record to support these contradictory positions," Joun wrote, referring to the administration's claim that its actions were administrative, not legislative, in nature. He noted that there was "no evidence that the RIF has actually made the Department more efficient," and found the department's claim of increased accountability to be unsupported.
Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann condemned the ruling as judicial overreach. "Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs," Biedermann said in a statement. "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."
The White House echoed that criticism. "We look forward to appealing this misguided decision and achieving ultimate victory," said Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for the administration. The government filed a notice of appeal Thursday afternoon.
The Trump administration's push to shutter the department intensified in March, when the president signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps" to close the agency. At her confirmation hearing, McMahon had acknowledged that congressional approval was required for such a move. "We'd like to do this right," she told senators, noting that closure "certainly does require congressional action."
The judge's order mandates that the Department of Education restore the agency to "the status quo such that it is able to carry out its statutory functions." That includes halting efforts to implement Trump's directive to reassign management of federal student loans and special needs programs.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of 20 states, the District of Columbia, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), two school districts, and other labor unions. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, applauded the decision. "This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity," Weingarten stated.
Plaintiffs argued that the department's hollowing-out left it unable to enforce federal funding requirements for colleges, oversee student loan servicers, or fulfill obligations to vulnerable student populations.
Judge Joun agreed, writing that the administration had likely violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by taking unilateral action in an area reserved for Congress. "Defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute," he wrote.
