Supreme Court paves way for Trump to pursue federal layoffs

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed President Donald Trump yet another victory as the judiciary gave the go-ahead for his administration to pursue the slashing of federal jobs, potentially numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

In doing so, the top court in the United States overrode lower court orders that temporarily froze the cuts, carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was initially headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

What does the ruling mean?

The judges, in a ruling that was not signed and did not reveal a vote count, lifted a lower court injunction that had initially blocked the Trump administration’s proposals while legal proceedings continued in lower courts.

Tuesday’s decision means that the workers can be fired while the lower court proceedings are ongoing.

The court said no specific jobs were presented to the justices, only an executive order issued by Trump and an administration directive for agencies to carry out job cuts.

Did any of the judges vote against Trump?

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only member of the panel who publicly dissented, accusing her colleagues of a “demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this president’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”

Jackson warned of enormous implications. “This executive action promises mass employee terminations, widespread cancellation of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the Federal Government as Congress has created it,” she wrote.

How has the Supreme Court backed Trump?

The Supreme Court in recent months has let the Trump administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them a chance to show the harms they could face and end temporary legal status previously granted on humanitarian grounds to hundreds of thousands of migrants.

In addition, the top court has allowed Trump to implement his ban on transgender people in the United States military, blocked a judge’s order for the administration to rehire thousands of fired employees, twice sided with DOGE and curbed the power of federal judges to impose nationwide rulings impeding presidential policies.

By late April 2025, DOGE’s efforts had led to the firing, resignations and early retirements of some 260,000 federal employees, according to a count by the Reuters news agency.