The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling that is keeping it from restructuring the Department of Education.
"That injunction effectively appoints the district court to a Cabinet role and bars the Executive Branch from terminating anyone, even though respondents conceded that some other [reductions in force] would plainly be proper," the SCOTUS filing reads.
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court declined to lift a judge's order blocking President Donald Trump from carrying out his executive order that would shut down the department, according to Reuters. In the executive order, which was issued in March, Trump asserted that "closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them."
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U.S. District Judge Myong Joun initially blocked the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the DOE in May. The ruling stopped a mass firing at the DOE that was announced in March and ordered the reinstatement of those who have been fired.
The DOE quickly rejected Joun's ruling, with Deputy Assistant Secretary of the DOE's Office of Communications and Outreach Madi Biedermann saying, "President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind. This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families. We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis."
Trump made it clear that he would seek to restructure and even dismantle the DOE during his second term in office. In fact, when he nominated Education Secretary Linda McMahon, he said her goal should be to "put herself out of a job." The president cited poor performance as one of his reasons for seeking to shut down the DOE.
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The Nation's Report Card, which assesses how American students are performing in various subjects, showed seven out of 10 fourth graders are not proficient readers, which is a worse score than the last report card in 2022. The report card noted that reading scores showed "no significant change" since 1992.
The administration has faced both political and legal pushback on its quest to get rid of the department. In February, several Democrats attempted to enter the Department of Education building in D.C., but were blocked by an employee.
During the incident in February, Democrats repeatedly slammed the Trump administration and accused it of lacking transparency.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
