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Investing.com -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that had blocked the Trump administration from carrying out mass job cuts and restructuring federal agencies.
The decision overturns San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s May 22 ruling that had halted large-scale federal layoffs, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of jobs.
President Donald Trump announced in February "a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy" through an executive order directing agencies to prepare for a government overhaul aimed at reducing the federal workforce and eliminating offices and programs opposed by the administration.
Workforce reductions were planned at the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Veterans Affairs and more than a dozen other agencies.
In her original ruling, Judge Illston determined that Trump had exceeded his authority, writing: "As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress."
The judge had blocked agencies from implementing mass layoffs and limited their ability to cut or overhaul federal programs. She also ordered the reinstatement of workers who had lost their jobs, though this portion of her ruling was delayed pending appeals.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied the administration’s request to halt the judge’s ruling in a 2-1 decision on May 30. The appeals court stated that the administration had not shown it would suffer irreparable injury if the order remained in place.
"The executive order at issue here far exceeds the president’s supervisory powers under the Constitution," the 9th Circuit wrote, describing the administration’s actions as "an unprecedented attempted restructuring of the federal government and its operations."
The Department of Government Efficiency, formerly led by billionaire Elon Musk, has been central to the administration’s efforts to eliminate federal jobs and reduce what they consider wasteful spending. Musk ended his government work on May 30 and later had a public disagreement with Trump.
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