Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a blistering dissent on Tuesday after the court cleared the way for the Trump administration to implement mass layoffs across the federal bureaucracy while litigation over the issue continues playing out.
The Context
The High Court ruled 8-1 to stay a lower court decision that temporarily blocked the administration from laying off employees across 19 government agencies. The plaintiffs in the case sued the Trump administration for trying to impose the layoffs and restructuring without congressional approval.
Tuesday’s decision is the latest in a series of Supreme Court rulings siding with the Trump administration in emergency cases since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
What To Know
In a scathing 15-page dissent, Jackson, one of the court’s three liberal justices, accused her colleagues of allowing Trump to take a “wrecking ball” to the federal bureaucracy.
“Given the fact-based nature of the issue in this case and the many serious harms that result from allowing the President to dramatically reconfigure the Federal Government, it was eminently reasonable for the District Court to maintain the status quo while the courts evaluate the lawfulness of the President’s executive action,” Jackson wrote.
“At bottom, this case is about whether that action amounts to a structural overhaul that usurps Congress‘s policymaking prerogatives—and it is hard to imagine deciding that question in any meaningful way after those changes have happened,” she added. “Yet, for some reason, this Court sees fit to step in now and release the President’s wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Tuesday.
The court’s majority said in its unsigned order that it was not commenting on the legality of the Trump administration’s plans but merely allowing them to be implemented while the lawsuit makes its way through the lower courts.
Jackson’s two liberal colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined the court’s six conservatives in the majority.
What People Are Saying
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement: “The court’s decision permits the administration to continue with plans to restructure federal agencies using Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganization Plans, despite the absence of the required congressional authorization. The court specifically did not weigh in on the legality of the agency plans themselves. The case will continue and counsel are considering next steps.”
The White House told Newsweek in a statement: “Today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling is another definitive victory for the President and his administration. It clearly rebukes the continued assaults on the President’s constitutionally authorized executive powers by leftist judges who are trying to prevent the President from achieving government efficiency across the federal government.”
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
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