The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an 8–1 emergency order that allows President Donald Trump’s February executive order on federal workforce reductions to take effect while litigation continues. The unsigned ruling lifts a lower-court injunction and says the administration is “likely to succeed” in defending the directive, which instructs agencies to prepare large-scale reductions in force consistent with applicable law. The Court stressed it was not ruling on the legality of any specific job cuts, only on the planning mandate. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed the lone dissent, a 15-page opinion accusing the majority of prematurely unleashing a presidential “wrecking ball” that could usurp Congress’s authority over the civil service. She wrote that the majority’s willingness to intervene at an early stage is “hubristic and senseless,” echoing her recent warnings that the Court’s conservative bloc poses an “existential threat to the rule of law.” In a rare public split within the liberal wing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the majority and, in a brief concurrence, said Jackson overlooked the fact that the executive order directs agencies to act within existing statutes. Sotomayor emphasized that trial courts remain free to scrutinize any eventual layoffs, underscoring the bounded nature of the decision. The dispute caps a term in which Jackson has emerged as the Court’s most prolific dissenter. Speaking days earlier at the Global Black Economic Forum, the junior justice defended her outspoken opinions and heavy participation at oral arguments, saying public engagement with the Court is healthy for democracy. A New York Times analysis found Jackson is issuing concurring opinions at the highest rate of any justice since at least 1937. Her confrontational style has drawn rebukes from conservative colleagues—most notably Justice Amy Coney Barrett—and, as Tuesday’s ruling shows, is increasingly testing alliances with fellow liberals.