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The US Supreme Court has allowed Donald Trump’s administration to proceed with mass job cuts that could fundamentally reshape and downsize the federal government.
The top court on Tuesday blocked a lower court order that had frozen cuts in federal staff nationwide, while the case moved through the appeals process.
The justices did not weigh in on the legality of the lay-off plans, which originated from one of the president’s executive orders in February.
The majority wrote that the government was “likely to succeed” in arguing the order was lawful. The ruling did not include a vote tally, as is usual for emergency appeals.
Liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing that presidents who have previously tried to overhaul the federal government had first secured congressional approval — and that Trump had “sharply departed from that settled practice”.
She said the executive order would lead to “mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programmes and services, and the dismantling of much of the federal government as Congress has created it”.
A coalition of unions, non-governmental organisations and local governments had challenged the president’s order in court, saying it violated the principle of the separation of powers enshrined in the US constitution.
“Today’s decision has dealt a serious blow to our democracy and puts services that the American people rely on in grave jeopardy,” the coalition said in a statement. “Reorganising government functions and laying off federal workers en masse haphazardly without any congressional approval is not allowed by our constitution.”
The White House said the ruling was “another definitive victory for the President and his administration” and it “clearly rebukes the continued assaults” on Trump’s executive powers.
The executive order issued by Trump in February mandated “a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy” to eliminate “waste, bloat and insularity”.
The order empowered the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, which was headed at the time by former Trump ally Elon Musk, to co-ordinate workforce reductions and ensure compliance across federal agencies. It called on nearly all federal agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to begin large-scale reductions-in-force” and reorganisations.
San Francisco-based US district judge Susan Illston blocked the lay-offs in May, finding that Trump had exceeded his authority by ordering the restructuring without authorisation from Congress.
Illston wrote: “As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorised by Congress.”
The Supreme Court’s move will pave the way for dismissals across several government agencies, though a particular target will be the Department of State. The changes there are likely to affect hundreds of foreign service officers, the department’s elite corps.
An open letter by more than 130 retired US ambassadors and other former senior US officials, published last week, warned secretary of state Marco Rubio against the cuts.
“At a time when the United States faces unprecedented challenges from strategic competitors, ongoing conflicts and emerging security threats, secretary Rubio’s decision to gut the state department’s institutional knowledge and operational capacity is reckless,” the letter said.
