The Supreme Court overrode a lower court ruling on Tuesday, allowing President Donald Trump to downsize the federal workforce despite pushback over the plan to curb government spending.
The unsigned ruling, with only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, overturns a judge’s order that prevented the Trump administration from having agencies conduct reductions in force.
The justices’ decision allows federal agencies to continue with Trump’s plan to reduce the federal workforce.
Jackson called the court’s decision to allow mass layoffs to continue “senseless” and criticized the other justices. She warned of consequences from Trump’s executive order and said it will hurt people through mass terminations, the cancellation of federal programs and by “dismantling much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who often agrees with Jackson, noted that the justices have not been presented with the Trump administration’s plans for workforce reductions “at this stage.” The justices can’t consider if they are out of the constraints of law and district courts can explore it further, she argued.
Labor unions, advocacy groups and local governments sued the federal government after Trump issued an executive order earlier this year that directed federal agencies to build off the work conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
The justices’ ruling Tuesday will lift an injunction set in place by California District Judge Susan Illston.
The order Tuesday from the Supreme Court is the latest in a series of legal wins for the Trump administration and its effort to overhaul the federal government. It’s also the second time the Supreme Court has intervened to allow the administration to lay off federal employees.
Since the start of the Trump administration, the federal workforce has changed dramatically. Tens of thousands of employees have either been let go or taken a voluntary buyout offer. There’s no exact count yet of how many jobs have been cut, but it’s estimated at least 75,000 employees took a deferred resignation offer, The Associated Press reported.