Sotomayor, in dissent, wrote that "it is the Judiciary’s duty to check ... lawlessness, not expedite it." Also: In two Sunday essays, a cont
Chris Geidner at Law Dork:
On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Republican appointees allowed the Republican Trump administration to gut the Education Department, a lawless ruling that laid bare the empty politics of the Roberts court.
The was no reasoning provided by the majority, and yet, with their action, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent for the Democratic appointees, the majority “hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out.”
When it’s a Republican president, at least.
On May 22, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, a Biden appointee, ruled that the Trump administration’s effort to “shut down” the Education Department was likely unconstitutional and illegal.
[...]
On Monday, the Supreme Court implicitly rejected both of those courts’ decisions, issuing a stay that will allow Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to destroy the federal agency.
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Monday’s ruling would be offensive to the rule of law in any scenario, but for Chief Justice John Roberts, in particular, to do so in a case involving the Education Department, in particular, it is little more than the Chief Justice of the United States laughing in the face of Americans and the rule of law.
It was Roberts, two short years ago, who held that then-president Joe Biden’s administration overstepped when his education secretary interpreted the “waive or modify“ language in the HEROES Act to include forgiving student loans.
The MAGA 6 judicial activists on SCOTUS permit the Trump Regime to illegally gut the US Department of Education.
See Also:
AP, via HuffPost: Supreme Court Allows Trump To Lay Off Nearly 1,400 Education Department Employees
One First (Steve Vladeck): The Inconsistent Court Strikes Again
Reuters, via The Guardian: US supreme court allows Trump to resume gutting education department
The Heritage Foundation and other Project 2025 partners are praising the Supreme Court decision opening the doors for President Donald Trump to dismantle the Department of Education — a key Project 2025 initiative marking another U-turn from Trump's early disavowal of the unpopular transition plan.
The court's July 14 ruling allows the administration to continue with the reduction in force of over 1,300 Education Department employees, more than one-quarter of the department's workforce. Trump praised the decision in a post on Truth Social, writing, “The Trump Administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education BACK TO THE STATES.”
The ruling also reverses a block on Trump's March executive order to close the department, though officially shuttering it requires congressional approval. The lower court judge who had halted the administration's efforts claimed the layoffs alone would effectively “cripple” the department.
The Department of Education has already struggled with enforcing civil rights laws and supporting students with disabilities since the Trump administration ordered a freeze on new cases and pressured the office to focus on investigations into transgender students on sports teams and antisemitism. The approved layoffs will shutter seven regional civil rights offices in major cities like New York and Chicago. The department’s Federal Student Aid office, which has already battled technical difficulties due to layoffs, is also facing large cuts. According to a Time magazine review, reducing the FSA offices may “massively disrupt” student loan operations. Trump has announced plans to move many of these offices’ functions to other government departments such as Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration, both of which are also facing layoffs.
Alongside the personnel cuts and grand plans for closure of the department, the Trump administration is withholding billions of dollars in federal education grants to ensure they “align with President Donald Trump’s priorities,” effectively shuttering many after-school programs and other federally funded education initiatives.
Project 2025 — the extreme right-wing plan for a second Trump administration organized by the Heritage Foundation and over 100 conservative partners — pledged to “gut federal education funding, sanction discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, divert taxpayer funds to private schools,” and “dismantle the federal role in public education.” Now, Project 2025 partner organizations are celebrating the Supreme Court ruling.
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All of the Trump administration's steps to dismantle the Department of Education reflect the goals of the Project 2025 policy book, Mandate for Leadership. The Heritage Foundation has argued for shuttering the Department of Education since the first Mandate for Leadership book published in 1981. The 2024 edition of Mandate included specific plans for demolishing the Department of Education in a chapter written by Heritage's Lindsey Burke.
Burke's chapter for Project 2025 called for the Trump administration to “devolve” the Department of Education “as a stand-alone Cabinet-level department" and recommended that its programs, offices, and personnel be moved to other federal agencies or completely eliminated. Project 2025 specifically argued that the department’s Office of Civil Rights “should move to the Department of Justice,” a plan that Education Secretary Linda McMahon echoed during her confirmation hearing. Burke also suggested that only “employees whose positions are determined to be essential to the mission” would possibly move to other agencies now handling their office's work.
Closing down the Department of Education is just one area of many policies where the Trump administration is following the lead of Project 2025.
Project 2025 contributors give blessing to the right-wing MAGA Majority on SCOTUS permitting Donald Trump to dismantle of the US Department of Education.
The president once famously said that he loves "the poorly educated."
Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:
On Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing recently sworn-in Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education, marking the most aggressive move yet in his administration’s assault on public schools.
McMahon, who was in attendance at the event in the East Room of the White House, is a former professional wrestling executive with no background in education policy. She was confirmed by the Senate two weeks ago. In an email to staff shortly after being sworn in, she described eliminating the department as a “momentous final mission,” echoing Trump’s long-standing pledge to shift education policy entirely to state and local governments.
The signing during one of Trump’s made-for-TV press occasions fulfills a key goal of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation. While Trump and his allies distanced themselves from Project 2025 during the 2024 presidential campaign, the executive order aligns with its recommendation to dissolve the Education Department.
A group of Republican governors attended the event in support of the move, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Trump claimed that states like Florida and Texas will achieve educational standards comparable to those of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. But the reality is that these Nordic nations have built their success on precisely the kind of public investment and government oversight that Trump is working to dismantle. Their education systems are fully publicly funded, tuition-free, and designed to ensure equity and access for all students, with a strong emphasis on personalized learning and teacher support. According to the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment, these countries consistently outperform the U.S.—Finland ranked 20th, Sweden 22nd, Norway 32nd, while the U.S. trailed behind at 34th.
Defunding public schools to push privatization
Trump’s administration has already begun staff layoffs and halted civil rights enforcement programs, including those protecting LGBTQ+ students and students of color. His broader plan will shift taxpayer dollars away from public schools and toward private institutions through voucher programs.
"She's been a hard worker," Trump said about the founder of the anti-government extremist group Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice, whom he welcomed to the event. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Moms for Liberty as an anti-government extremist group that stemmed from conservative outrage over mask mandates and COVID-19 precautions during the early days of the pandemic. Moms for Liberty has advocated for the removal of books written about or by LGBTQ+ people by taking over school boards. In 2023, the group resoundingly lost elections in which its candidates ran.
Until the end of the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Education played a key role in protecting LGBTQ+ students by enforcing anti-discrimination policies under Title IX and investigating complaints of harassment or exclusion. The department also promoted inclusive policies in schools, ensuring that LGBTQ+ students had access to safe learning environments, protections against bullying, and equal opportunities in education.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, condemned the move, warning that eliminating the department affects the most vulnerable students.
[...]
Despite Trump’s rhetoric about eliminating federal control over education, the Department of Education does not set curriculum or school policies, which are determined by state and local governments. Instead, the department oversees federal funding for low-income students through Title I, provides support for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, enforces civil rights protections for marginalized students, including LGBTQ+ youth and students of color, and administers federal student loan programs, including Pell Grants and loan forgiveness initiatives.
This afternoon, lawless tyrant Donald Trump checks off yet another Project 2025 wish list item by signing an executive order that orders the winding down of the US Department of Education… except that it would require an act of Congress to fully close down the DoE. The closing of the DoE has long been a conservative wish list item, and sadly, it got finally fulfilled (mostly).
This move does calculated harm to public schooling and marginalized peoples, such as LGBTQ+, POC, and persons with disabilities in a giveaway to privatization interests.
See Also:
LGBTQ Nation: Donald Trump’s order to eliminate Dept. of Education offers no details
HuffPost: Trump Signs Executive Order To Dismantle The Department Of Education
The Guardian: Trump signs executive order to dismantle US Department of Education
