The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration can move ahead with its plan to fire nearly 1,400 Education Department employees, a move that critics say will cripple the agencys ability to carry out Congressionally mandated functions and represents a clear threat to the Constitutions separation of powers.On Monday, July 14, the Courts six conservative justices granted the administrations emergency appeal, overturning a lower courts preliminary injunction preventing the mass layoffs. Writing for the Courts three liberal justices in her dissent, Justice Sonya Sotomayor warned of the decisions grave implications. Related Donald Trumps order to eliminate Dept. of Education offers no details He claims he wants to let states decide their own schools curriculum. They already do. When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciarys duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it, Sotomayor wrote. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps permitted by law to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. The departments primary functions overseeing the national student aid program and civil rights enforcement to ensure equal access to schools and educational programs should be returned to the States, Trump stated in the March 20 order.Advocacy groups blasted Trumps executive order for the harm it will inflict on marginalized students, including those who identify as LGBTQ+.As NBC News notes, McMahon subsequently issued a memo ordering mass layoffs, writing that her goal was to shut down the Education Department. However, neither the education secretary nor the president have the authority to eliminate the department, which was established by Congress in 1979, without Congressional approval. In May, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ruled in favor of plaintiffs in two consolidated lawsuits challenging Trumps executive order. They argued that the layoffs and the administrations plan to transfer the departments function to other agencies amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department, according to the Associated Press. Joun wrote that the evidence reveals that the defendants true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute, according to NBC News.As USA Today and other outlets note, the Supreme Courts conservative majority did not explain its decision to overturn Jouns ruling. In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote that the Courts indefensible decision hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitutions separation of powers is grave.Without explaining to the American people its reasoning, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have dealt a devastating blow to this nations promise of public education for all children, Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement following the courts ruling Monday. On its shadow docket, the Court has yet again ruled to overturn the decision of two lower courts without argument.Lawyers for Democracy Forward had argued that if the administration was allowed to go forward with the mass layoffs while the courts decide whether it was acting legally, it would be effectively impossible to undo much of the damage.According to USA Today, Perryman said that Democracy Forward would aggressively pursue every legal option as this case proceeds to ensure that all children in this country have access to the public education they deserve.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.