The U.S. State Department on Friday began issuing termination notices to more than 1,300 domestically based employees after the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court injunction earlier in the week, clearing the Trump administration to proceed with a sweeping overhaul of the diplomatic corps. An internal notice seen by multiple news organisations shows 1,107 civil-service staff and 246 Foreign Service officers are affected. Foreign Service personnel are being placed on paid administrative leave for 120 days; most civil servants will be separated after 60 days. Combined with nearly 1,600 earlier voluntary departures, the reduction will trim about 3,000 positions, roughly 15 % of the department’s U.S. workforce. The layoffs are part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s restructuring plan, which merges or eliminates more than 300 domestic offices, folds the former U.S. Agency for International Development into the department, and consolidates functions such as sanctions enforcement and human-resources support. Rubio, speaking in Kuala Lumpur, said the aim is to create a “leaner, more focused” organisation aligned with the administration’s ‘America First’ agenda. Critics, including the American Foreign Service Association and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, warn that the cuts will erode U.S. diplomatic capability at a time of heightened tensions with China, Russia and Iran. Legal challenges to aspects of the reorganisation continue in lower courts, but department officials said no further domestic layoffs are planned for now.