“Can they do that?”
It’s a frequently asked question in the early days of Donald Trump’s second term.
One of the latest actions spurring that question is the Department of Education’s decision to cut about half its staff under the leadership of former wrestling executive Linda McMahon. The answer is “no,” according to a new lawsuit filed by Democratic-led states, including New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The Trump administration “cannot dismantle the Department of Education,” the legal complaint filed Thursday in Massachusetts federal court reads. “It cannot override — whether through large-scale RIFs [Reduction in Force] or otherwise — the statutory framework prescribing the Department’s responsibilities.”
The states’ suit invokes the separation of powers, arguing that the executive is encroaching legislative authority and not “tak[ing] care” that the law be faithfully executed as constitutionally required. Noting that Congress created the department, the complaint said the executive and his agencies “cannot incapacitate it, absent Congressional action that directs them to do so.”
The states also said the department’s “mass RIF” is “arbitrary and capricious” because the government “provided no reasoned basis or explanation” for it. “The Department’s stated reasons for the RIF — to promote ‘efficiency’ and ‘accountability’ — are pretext for the President and Secretary McMahon’s stated goal of dismantling the Department from within,” the complaint alleged.
It recalled past attempts to eliminate the department, such as Republican Ronald Reagan’s bid to do so with legislation in the 1980s. But Congress didn’t pass that legislation, thus reflecting “the uncontroversial understanding that only Congress may abolish an agency it created,” the complaint said. And what’s the connection to the states? They wrote that they rely on the department “for an extraordinary array of programs,” citing funds for low-income children and students with disabilities, anti-discrimination enforcement and student aid. The federal government will get a chance to respond in court, and a judge will make an initial determination of whether this suit will join others that have blocked some of the administration’s actions so far. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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