Latest news with #DJohnSauer
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Trump administration asks U.S. Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at Education Department in place
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of his plan to dismantle the agency. The Justice Department's emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold. Joun's order has blocked one of the Republican President's biggest campaign promises and effectively stalled the effort to wind down the department. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed. The judge wrote that the layoffs 'will likely cripple the department.' But Solicitor-General D. John Sauer wrote on Friday that Joun was substituting his policy preferences for those of the Trump administration. The layoffs help put in the place the 'policy of streamlining the department and eliminating discretionary functions that, in the administration's view, are better left to the states,' Sauer wrote. He also pointed out that the Supreme Court in April voted 5-4 to block Joun's earlier order seeking to keep in place Education Department teacher-training grants. Gary Mason: Donald Trump's corruption knows no bounds or precedent The current case involves two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump's plan amounted to an illegal closing of the Education Department. One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys-general. The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws. Trump has made it a priority to shut down the Education Department, though he has acknowledged that only Congress has the authority to do that. In the meantime, Trump issued a March order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to wind it down 'to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.' Trump later said the department's functions will be parcelled to other agencies, suggesting that federal student loans should be managed by the Small Business Administration and programs involving students with disabilities would be absorbed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Those changes have not yet happened. The President argues that the Education Department has been overtaken by liberals and has failed to spur improvements to the nation's lagging academic scores. He has promised to 'return education to the states.' Opponents note that K-12 education is already mostly overseen by states and cities. Democrats have blasted the Trump administration's Education Department budget, which seeks a 15-per-cent budget cut including a $4.5-billion cut in K-12 funding as part of the agency's downsizing.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to leave mass layoffs at Education Department in place
President Donald Trump 's administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of his plan to dismantle the agency. The Justice Department's emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold. Joun's order has blocked one of the Republican president's biggest campaign promises and effectively stalled the effort to wind down the department. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed. The judge wrote that the layoffs 'will likely cripple the department.' But Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote on Friday that Joun was substituting his policy preferences for those of the Trump administration. The layoffs help put in the place the 'policy of streamlining the department and eliminating discretionary functions that, in the administration's view, are better left to the states,' Sauer wrote. He also pointed out that the Supreme Court in April voted 5-4 to block Joun's earlier order seeking to keep in place Education Department teacher-training grants. The current case involves two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump's plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department. One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general. The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws. ___
Fast Company
4 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow federal layoffs
President Donald Trump's administration on Monday renewed its request for the Supreme Court to clear the way for plans to downsize the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds. The high court filing came after an appeals court refused to freeze a California-based judge's order halting the cuts, which have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the downsizing could have broader effects, including on the nation's food-safety system and health care for veterans. In her ruling last month, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston found that Trump's administration congressional approval to make sizable reductions to the federal workforce. The administration initially asked the justices to step in last month, but withdrew its appeal for technical, legal reasons. The latest filing is one in a series of emergency appeals arguing federal judges had overstepped their authority. Illston's order 'rests on the indefensible premise that the President needs explicit statutory authorization from Congress to exercise his core Article II authority to superintend the internal personnel decisions of the Executive Branch,' Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the new appeal. Trump has repeatedly said voters gave him a mandate to remake the federal government, and he tapped billionaire ally Elon Musk to lead the charge through DOGE. Musk left his role last week. Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programs, or have been placed on leave. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go. Illston's order directs numerous federal agencies to halt acting on the president's workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management. Illston was nominated by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. Among the agencies affected by the order are the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, the Interior, State, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs. It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. The Supreme Court set a deadline of next Monday for a response from the unions and cities, including Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco. Some of the labor unions and nonprofit groups are also plaintiffs in another lawsuit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court later blocked his order.
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Supreme Court Seeks DOJ View on Hertz Bondholder Case
The Supreme Court invited a brief from the Justice Department for advice on a Hertz Global Holdings Inc. case about a roughly $320 million payment that the rental car firm may owe to bondholders. Hertz has been seeking a Supreme Court review of a federal appeals court decision that bondholders from the company's 2020 bankruptcy are owed make-whole premiums and interest related to the case. The court on Monday issued an order requesting the views of Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the Trump administration's top Supreme Court lawyer.
CNN
4 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Trump returns to Supreme Court with emergency appeal over mass firings
The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday to ask the justices to reverse a lower court order that has blocked mass firings and major reorganizations at federal agencies, a case that could have enormous implications for the president's power to reshape the federal government. The latest emergency appeal involving President Donald Trump's second term to reach the Supreme Court followed an order last week from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that kept on hold Trump's plans for the sweeping layoffs – known as reductions in force, or RIFs. 'Controlling the personnel of federal agencies lies at the heartland' of the president's authority, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court in the appeal. 'The Constitution does not erect a presumption against presidential control of agency staffing, and the president does not need special permission from Congress to exercise' his core constitutional powers. The lawsuit was filed by more than a dozen unions, non-profits and local governments, which are billing it as the largest legal challenge to the Trump administration's effort to downsize the federal workforce. A senior administration official told CNN last month that it is watching the case closely because of its significance for allowing Trump to reduce the size of and restructure the federal government. Trump had asked the Supreme Court to wade into the case once before, but the Department of Justice withdrew the appeal days later when a federal district court issued a more fulsome order blocking Trump from proceeding. In its 2-1 opinion denying Trump's request to pause that district court order, the 9th Circuit panel said the Trump executive order at issue 'far exceeds the president's supervisory powers under the Constitution.' The majority concluded that the challengers were likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments that the mass layoffs were unlawful. The case stems from an executive order, which Trump signed in mid-February, that kicked off the process of the federal employees' mass culling. Agencies, which are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to carry out the mandate, were required to file reorganization plans with the administration earlier this year. But the unions have complained that the details of those plans have not been shared. Already, at least 121,000 federal workers have been laid off or targeted for layoffs since Trump took office, according to a CNN analysis. The figure doesn't include those placed on administrative leave or those who took voluntary buyouts. The order covers major reductions at more than a dozen agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Labor, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.
