PHOENIX – Attorney General Mayes today won a court order stopping the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED). On March 13, Attorney General Mayes joined a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in suing the administration after it announced plans to eliminate 50 percent of ED’s workforce.
“The Trump administration has zero authority to dismantle congressionally authorized agencies like the Department of Education,” said Attorney General Mayes. “I’m proud to have brought this lawsuit to protect the funding and services that so many schools across Arizona – particularly in rural parts of the state rely on. We will keep fighting to ensure the President follows the law.”
Following a March 20 Executive Order directing the closure of ED and President Trump’s March 21 announcement that, in addition to implementing layoffs, the Department must “immediately” transfer student loan management and special education services outside of the Department, Attorney General Mayes and the coalition sought a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the mass layoffs and transfer of services. Today the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the preliminary injunction, halting the administration’s policies that would dismantle ED and ordering all employees who were fired as part of the layoffs to be reinstated.
Attorney General Mayes and the coalition argued in their lawsuit and motion for a preliminary injunction that the Trump administration’s attacks on ED are illegal and unconstitutional. The ED is an executive agency authorized by Congress, with numerous laws creating its various programs and funding streams. The coalition’s lawsuit asserts that the executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally dismantle it without an act of Congress. In addition, Attorney General Mayes and the coalition argue that ED’s mass layoffs violate the Administrative Procedures Act.
Joining Attorney General Mayes in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
