Federal judge blocks Trump administration plan to gut Education Department

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BOSTON — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to reinstate more than 1,300 Department of Education employees whom Democratic-led states argued were being terminated en masse as part of an effort to dismantle the agency.

District Judge Myong Joun in Boston issued an injunction blocking the administration from moving forward with a mass layoff that would leave the Education Department with about half as many employees as it had when the Republican president took office in January.

"The record abundantly reveals that defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute," Joun, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, wrote.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits by Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia, several school districts and teachers' unions that argued the terminations would unlawfully gut the department.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced the mass layoff, known in government parlance as a "reduction in force," on March 11, which her agency said was being carried out as part of the Education Department's "final mission."

Those job cuts were announced a week before Trump signed an executive order calling for the department's closure, following a campaign promise to conservatives aimed at leaving school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards.