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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a blistering dissent against the Supreme Court's decision to allow President Donald Trump to resume mass federal layoffs.
On Tuesday (July 8), the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to stay a lower court decision that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing mass layoffs across the federal government, per Newsweek. Plaintiffs in the case, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), sued the administration for imposing layoffs and restructuring the federal government without congressional approval.
The court's majority, which included Jackson's liberal colleagues Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor and the six conservative justices, said it's not commenting on the legality of mass layoffs, but it's allowing them to be implemented while the lawsuit proceeds in the lower courts.
Jackson, the sole dissenting justice, accused her colleagues of allowing Trump to take a "wrecking ball" to federal bureaucracy.
"Given the fact-based nature of the issue in this case and the many serious harms that result from allowing the President to dramatically reconfigure the Federal Government, it was eminently reasonable for the District Court to maintain the status quo while the courts evaluate the lawfulness of the President's executive action," Jackson wrote in her 15-page dissent.
"At bottom, this case is about whether that action amounts to a structural overhaul that usurps Congress's policymaking prerogatives—and it is hard to imagine deciding that question in any meaningful way after those changes have happened," she added. "Yet, for some reason, this Court sees fit to step in now and release the President's wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation."
Tuesday's decision is among several in which justices have sided with the Trump administration in emergency cases filed against the president after he issued a series of executive orders upon his return to the White House.
A spokesperson for the White House said in a statement: "Today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling is another definitive victory for the President and his administration. It clearly rebukes the continued assaults on the President's constitutionally authorized executive powers by leftist judges who are trying to prevent the President from achieving government efficiency across the federal government."
The American Federation of Government Employees confirmed that they will continue to pursue the case in the lower courts following Tuesday's ruling.
"The court's decision permits the administration to continue with plans to restructure federal agencies using Agency Reductions in Force and Reorganization Plans, despite the absence of the required congressional authorization. The court specifically did not weigh in on the legality of the agency plans themselves. The case will continue and counsel are considering next steps," AFGE said in a statement.
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