Latest news with #judicialruling
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Judge stops the dismantling of the Department of Education and orders rehiring of fired workers
A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump 's administration from dismantling the Department of Education and ordered the reinstatement of fired employees. Massachusetts District Judge Myong Joun rejected the administration's arguments that thousands of workers purged from the agency were done with 'efficiency' in mind. Mass firings have instead led to chaos and disruptions for schools, teachers, students and families across the country, according to Joun, who was appointed to the bench by former president Joe Biden. The administration has admitted that the Education Department 'cannot be shut down' without Congress weighing in, 'yet they simultaneously claim that their legislative goals (obtaining Congressional approval to shut down the Department) are distinct from their administrative goals (improving efficiency),' Joun wrote in his 88-page opinion Thursday. 'There is nothing in the record to support these contradictory positions.' Instead, the administration's 'true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute,' he wrote. 'The idea that Defendants' actions are merely a 'reorganization' is plainly not true.' Joun's preliminary injunction orders the administration to return the Education Department to the 'status quo' before his executive orders designed to shutter the agency, which oversees grant funding and civil rights enforcement. It does not have any role role in developing curriculum, enrollment requirements, lesson plans or hiring at public schools, colleges or universities, but the department has become a target for Republican officials and right-wing special interest groups in an effort to purge ideological opponents from public education and privatize schools. Joun's order also blocks the administration from transferring the department's functions to other agencies.
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Judge Rules That Trump Administration Takeover of Institute of Peace Is Illegal
A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration's takeover and gutting of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit created by Congress to seek diplomatic solutions to global conflicts, were unlawful and a 'gross usurpation of power' and ordered the reinstatement of officials ejected by the White House. The March takeover and the subsequent termination of most of the institute's work force followed an executive order from President Trump to cut its staffing to a bare minimum. The judge, Beryl Howell of U.S. District Court in Washington, wrote that such changes required the consent of Congress, but that the Trump administration had removed the institute's leadership and installed handpicked replacements 'through blunt force, backed up by law enforcement officers from three separate local and federal agencies.' Judge Howell's ruling, in a suit brought by former institute officials, was the latest judicial order blocking the administration's aggressive efforts to assert power over Washington institutions. In a statement on Monday, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, called the ruling a 'rogue judge's attempt to impede on the separation of powers' and suggested the administration would appeal. 'President Trump is right to reduce failed, useless entities like USIP to their statutory minimum,' Ms. Kelly added. The institute has an annual budget of $50 million, appropriated by Congress. The takeover unfolded over several dramatic days at the institute, which was established 41 years ago and whose headquarters sit on the National Mall. After the White House orchestrated the ouster of the institute's president and top staff members, they refused to leave. Then in a showdown on March 17, members of Elon Musk's cost-cutting team joined with private security and law enforcement authorities in a bid to take control of the building. After a confrontation lasting hours, the institute's top staff, including its acting president, were evicted by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department after the police determined that a State Department official had authority over the building. The White House also fired all 10 voting members of the organization's board. In the weeks that followed, all but four of the institute's hundreds of workers in the United States and abroad were terminated. The institute's work has since ground to a halt. Judge Howell rejected the Trump administration's argument that the institute was part of the executive branch. Instead, she wrote, 'USIP supports both the Executive and Legislative branches as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services.' Her order also prohibits the administration's 'further trespass' of the institute's headquarters. George Foote, a former lawyer for the institute who helped bring the lawsuit, lauded the judge's decision and said that the institute's former staff members had been working in anticipation of the institute being restored and were already taking steps to regain access to the building. 'The culture is intact and the management and staff are ready to go back to work,' Mr. Foote said.
