Trump Can Proceed With Government Overhaul, Cut Workers, Supreme Court Rules

President Donald Trump’s plan to restructure the federal workforce is already moving full steam ahead.

Elena Kagan, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas sit in the front row, from left to right. Ketanji Brown Jackson, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett are in the back row.

The US Supreme Court declared in a late-day ruling on Tuesday, July 8, that Trump’s executive order may proceed, permitting widespread layoffs and structural reorganizations across several federal departments and agencies as the legal proceedings continue.

An injunction imposed by US District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco on Thursday, May 22, temporarily blocking Trump’s decree on the grounds that it probably needed congressional approval, was reversed by the high court’s unsigned judgment.

In question is the administration’s use of reduction in force (RIF) processes to fire thousands of government employees without first consulting Congress, particularly at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Social Security Administration.

The judges lifted the legal barrier that had stalled Trump’s larger plan for weeks, but they did not decide on whether it was lawful.

The court stressed that on an individual basis, challengers may nonetheless raise objections to certain layoff plans or agency actions.

However, as stated in the original executive order, the decision permits the administration to continue its efforts to reduce government personnel numbers at over a dozen agencies.

“In my opinion, this was the wrong decision at the wrong time, especially given what little this Court knows about what is actually happening on the ground,” stated Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in his dissenting opinion.

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