A federal judge in Massachusetts has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the President’s executive order calling for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to close the U.S. Education Department.
District Court Judge Myong J. Joun told the administration “to restore the Department to the status quo” and reinstate the 1,300 departmental employees who were axed in March, beginning his ruling with an endorsement of the department, “The Department’s role in education across the nation cannot be understated: it administers the federal student loan portfolio, provides research and technological assistance to states and their educational institutions, disburses federal education funds, and monitors and enforces compliance with numerous federal laws. Congress enacted these laws to promote equality and anti-discrimination in schools, assist students with special needs and disabilities, ensure student privacy, and much more.”
In the ruling, Joun wrote, “A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”
The order also barred the removal from the Education Department of the management of the entire federal student loan portfolio and the “special needs” programs.
In a statement, Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications, wrote: “Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people.”
Despite the administration’s arguments in court that its moves were intended to make the department more efficient, Joun wrote that he saw “no evidence that the [reduction-in-force] has actually made the Department more efficient. Rather, the record is replete with evidence of the opposite.”
Most significantly, Joun asserted that the administration had likely violated the separation of powers by taking actions that conflicted with its “duties to take care to faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress, as well as its duties to expend funds that Congress has authorized it to appropriate.”
The case is the consolidation of two separate cases, involving 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), two school districts and other unions.
Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, commented, “Today’s federal court ruling blocking President Trump’s executive order attempting to dismantle the Department of Education is a victory for the millions of students who depend on federal civil rights protections and educational support programs.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement: “This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity. For America to build a brighter future, we must all take more responsibility, not less, for the success of our children.”
The administration will not be backing down soon, “We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis,” confirmed deputy assistant secretary Biedermann.