Democratic-led states challenge Trump administration for education department layoffs – JURIST
A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a complaint Thursday against the Trump administration for sweeping layoffs across the Education Department, saying it amounts to an illegal dismantling of an agency created by Congress.
The Attorney Generals (AGs) for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Washington DC and Wisconsin filed the complaint in a Massachusetts District Court. The AGs argue that their states and education systems have sustained immense damage from the reduction in force that was announced earlier this month. The complaint further argues:
It is a bedrock constitutional principle that the President and his agencies cannot make law. Rather, they can only—and indeed, they must—implement the laws enacted by Congress, including those statutes that create federal agencies and dictate their duties. The Executive thus can neither outright abolish an agency nor incapacitate it by cutting away the personnel required to implement the agency’s statutorily-mandated duties . . . Congress has exclusive authority to abolish executive agencies.
The reduction in force comes after Trump has publicly declared his intentions to shut down the Department of Education many times. In the latest statement, Trump called the Department of Education “a big con job.” The Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has publicly backed Trump’s decision to dismantle the Department of Education. During an interview, McMahon called the reduction in force the first step on the road to a total shutdown in an attempt to eliminate “bureaucratic bloat.”
The reduction in force has resulted in nearly 600 employees of the education department accepting voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement. The remaining employees will be placed on administrative leave beginning next Friday, March 21.
This is not the first lawsuit that argues Trump’s executive order overstepped its constitutional executive power. In February, 14 US state attorney generals challenged the establishment of DOGE as an usurp of Congress’s exclusive power to create government departments.
