Supreme Court Lets Trump Cut Education Dept. Staff Without Explaining Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an unsigned order allowing the Trump administration to continue dismantling the Department of Education, a move that spares the government from reinstating roughly 1,400 employees while litigation proceeds. The four-sentence ruling, released on Monday, offered no rationale or vote count and immediately drew a 19-page dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who warned the majority was handing the executive branch powers reserved for Congress. Legal scholars say the decision underscores the court’s increasing reliance on its emergency, or “shadow,” docket and its growing tendency to rule in the president’s favor without explanation. According to Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck, the justices have sided with President Donald Trump in all 15 emergency petitions decided since April, issuing majority opinions in only three cases and providing no reasoning in seven. Critics contend the pattern marks a sharp departure from the court’s treatment of the previous administration. In 2023 the justices froze President Joe Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan and moved the dispute to the regular merits docket for full briefing and argument. By contrast, the court’s latest order allows Trump’s sweeping education cuts to take immediate effect, prompting scholars to question whether the justices are applying a different standard to similar assertions of executive power. The absence of written reasoning, analysts warn, erodes transparency and public confidence in the court. While the majority’s legal basis remains unknown, opponents are likely to keep pressing the case in lower courts, heightening scrutiny of how the Supreme Court wields its emergency authority in politically charged disputes.