A federal judge has delivered a major blow to the Trump administration’s plan to shut down the U.S. Department of Education, halting the effort and ordering the reinstatement of hundreds of employees who were recently laid off.
Judge Myong Joun issued a preliminary injunction preventing the administration from proceeding with its controversial move to dissolve the department through executive action. In a strongly worded ruling, Joun declared that any dismantling of a Cabinet-level agency requires congressional approval and cannot be carried out unilaterally by the executive branch.
“This attempt to bypass Congress and eliminate an entire federal department through mass terminations is both unlawful and unconstitutional,” Joun wrote. He also ordered the immediate rehiring of Education Department employees who were laid off in early March, many of whom had worked in areas such as special education, civil rights enforcement, and student financial aid.
The judge’s decision blocks not only the layoffs but also efforts to transfer key functions, including the federal student loan program, to other agencies. Joun warned that shuttering the department without a clear, legal framework would cause “irreparable harm” to millions of students and families who rely on its services.
The Trump administration has defended the plan as part of a broader push for government efficiency, arguing that the Education Department is bloated, ineffective, and redundant. In a statement following the ruling, White House officials said they would appeal the decision and accused the court of obstructing much-needed reforms.
Critics, however, see the plan as part of a larger ideological campaign to undermine federal oversight of education and shift power entirely to states and private institutions. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns about the potential fallout of abruptly eliminating the agency, especially with no replacement plan in place.
This is the second major legal setback in as many weeks for the administration, which recently had another federal judge block its attempt to terminate members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
With the injunction now in place, the future of Trump’s education overhaul remains uncertain. The administration’s emergency appeal is expected to be fast-tracked, but for now, the Department of Education is back in operation—and hundreds of its workers are heading back to their desks.
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