The Trump administration plans to move to reality on Tuesday’s plans for thousands of federal workers, when the U.S. Supreme Court introduced a lower court order to temporarily block the termination.
The initial lawsuit filed by the lower court was jointly filed by the United States Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and 11 nonprofit organizations, as well as state governments including California, Texas and Illinois. The legal move is intended to maintain the federal workforce, one of the cuts in President Trump’s Executive Order 14210.
The groups warned in a statement that Tuesday’s ruling would “the service the American people depend on in serious danger” and “we will not change the simple and clear fact that our constitution does not allow reorganization of government functions and by chance carry any federal workers approved by Congress.”
The lower court ruled to stop the massive dismissal and reorganization of 19 federal agencies and departments, including the State Council and the Social Security Bureau. Elsewhere in the court system, another lawsuit targets the government’s decision to bypass the federal protocol, which requires Congress to approve such a massive cut, e.g. Washington Post Report.
“For some reason, the court believes that the president’s sabotage ball was released at the beginning of this lawsuit,” Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her 15-page dissident. “I think this decision is not only truly unfortunate, but also rich and meaningless.”
Jackson is the only dissident among the nine Supreme Court members, this time with two well-known liberals, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Sotomayor, in her opinion, planned restructuring and labor reduction “is consistent with applicable laws.”
“The plan itself is not at this stage, so we have no chance to consider whether they can and will be consistent with the limitations of the law,” she added.
Lower court judges can still evaluate the legitimacy of government plans after they come into effect, which can effectively bring the case back to the Supreme Court.
This decision is not expected to affect preliminary injunctions in separate litigation of termination and reorganization in the Department of Health and Human Services sub-agents, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Food and Drug Administration and the Beginning.
The State Council still plans to cut 15% of its staff and plans to other government agencies are not clear.
However, before the ruling, thousands of federal workers had been fired, deferred resigned or had been on leave. Even though Elon Musk left the Doge, the department oversees and is the driving force behind the overhaul of these plans, changes are expected to continue.
Art programs and grants funded by government agencies, including the National Humanities Foundation, the National Arts Foundation, and the Institute of Museum and Library Science, have been severely cut. Some of this funds are expected to support the creation of new statues in the new National Heroes Garden, reaching $40 million.
Earlier this week, the White House is currently reviewing the Smithsonian agency’s exhibition program.
