SCOTUS lets Trump fire hundreds of Education Department workers, dismantle the agency
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, July 15th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt.
Today what a Supreme Court decision means for the future of the Education Department, plus Trump's latest approach to Ukraine and how some in his inner circle are upset with what's been delivered about Jeffrey Epstein.
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The Supreme Court is letting President Donald Trump fire hundreds of Education Department workers and dismantle the agency. I discussed with USA TODAY's Supreme Court correspondent, Maureen Groppe. Maureen, always a pleasure having you on. How are you?
Maureen Groppe:
I'm good. Thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for joining me. What did the court decide and how did the majority argue here?
Maureen Groppe:
So the Supreme Court lifted a lower court's order that had required the administration to rehire hundreds of Education Department employees and had stopped the administration from transferring some of the Education Department functions to other agencies. The majority did not give an explanation for why it disagreed with those decisions that were made by both a federal district judge and were backed up by an appeals court and said it was just a very short order lifting those decisions.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, this is an ideologically divided court on this. What did we hear from the dissenters?
Maureen Groppe:
So the three justices who were appointed by Democratic presidents, they opposed this order. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote 19 pages explaining why. The gist of it is that she said that the majority of justices are allowing Trump to repeal laws that Congress passed creating the Education Department, allowing him to do that by firing all the employees who are needed to carry out the functions that Congress required the Education Department to undertake. And she said her colleagues are either naive to think that that is not what's happening or they are willfully looking the other way to allow it to happen.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. And what did we previously seen from the lower courts on this issue, Maureen?
Maureen Groppe:
So this started with a federal judge in Massachusetts who said that the White House decision to fire more than 1300 workers is preventing the government from effectively implementing programs and services that they're legally required by Congress to do. She said changes that magnitude have to be approved by Congress before the administration can do them. And the US Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in Boston, they agreed with that federal judge and they said the administration hadn't provided any evidence to dispute that these firings were having a destabilizing effect on the Education Department.
Taylor Wilson:
Trump is clearly trying to fulfill his campaign promise to end the Education Department, Maureen. What are his practical goals here? How would this work?
Maureen Groppe:
He directed the Education Secretary to, as he put it, "facilitate the closure of the Department of Education." And the education Secretary previously announced that about half the workforce would be cut through a combination of layoffs and buyouts. And the administration also wants to move functions to other places, such as having these small business administration take over student loans and move special education services to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Taylor Wilson:
This decision came a week after the court allowed the administration to move forward with staffing cuts at a number of agencies. What's next, Maureen?
Maureen Groppe:
So the groups in states that are challenging these cuts, they can continue to do so. What the decisions mean, however, is that the layoffs can move forward for the time being. So it's possible that once these challenges eventually come back to the Supreme Court, the court could decide that the layoffs went too far. But even if it does do that, it could be difficult at that point to restore the agencies to the level they were at before they were gutted.
Taylor Wilson:
Maureen Groppe covers the Supreme Court for USA TODAY. Thank you, Maureen.
Maureen Groppe:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
In other education news, a coalition of states is suing the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in federal education funding, including money for after school and summer learning programs. The group of Democratic Attorneys General representing 24 states in the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuit yesterday in a federal court in Rhode Island. In the complaint, the top lawyers in several blue states say the funding pause is unconstitutional and ask the court to restore the money in their states immediately.
Since the Education Department's decision two weeks ago to withhold the funds which have been available to schools annually without interruption for decades, many districts nationwide have found themselves in financial uncertainty. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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President Trump has announced new weapons to Ukraine through NATO. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent, Francesca Chambers, to learn more. Thanks for joining me, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks Taylor. Always pleasure.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, starting here. What did the president announce for sending weapons through NATO?
Francesca Chambers:
The president said that the United States would make the weapons, however now European countries would pay for them. The President said that Patriot missile systems that Ukraine was expected to receive would come from European countries, and then what the United States would do was backfill those countries' supplies.
Taylor Wilson:
Just on a practical level, Francesca, what will this functionally mean for Ukraine's ability now to fight back against Russia?
Francesca Chambers:
This is seen as critical for Ukraine. You may recall that Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had asked President Trump for the ability of Ukraine to be able to buy these types of weapons and air defense systems from the United States. This is something that President Trump said that he was considering before. And then of course, we heard from him last week that he was going to remove a temporary pause that the Pentagon had put in place on some weapons shipments to Ukraine. But to have him sit with the NATO Secretary General yesterday and say that he was now going to be doing this for Ukraine was seen by experts and those watching this closely as a major turning point in the discussion.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. You mentioned NATO Secretary General. I mean, what role did NATO leader, Mark Rutte, have in making this happen?
Francesca Chambers:
Taylor, he's relatively new to the role. He became NATO Secretary General in October, not too long before Donald Trump took office, and he's seen as a mediator between President Trump and other NATO nations. Listeners might recall that last month at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Mark Rutte was the one who called Trump daddy and said that sometimes he has to use tough language. That pertained to President Trump's salty language about the fighting between Israel and Iran. But as you saw yesterday at the White House, Taylor, his closeness with President Trump has helped him to bring the US leader closer to positions that Europe wants.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as for Trump this week, he's also threatening related new secondary tariffs. Francesca, what has he said specifically on that point?
Francesca Chambers:
The President has been under pressure from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to put sanctions on Russia and to cut off financial revenue that it gets from its exports of oil and gas and also uranium. Now, that is something that's covered in a Senate bill that GOP leaders had said that they were trying to bring to the floor of both the Senate and the House, but President Trump said yesterday as he was sitting next to Rutte, that he would put severe tariffs on Russia and secondary tariffs on countries that do business with Moscow.
Taylor Wilson:
So senators have their own plans for terrorists or countries that do business with Russia as well, right?
Francesca Chambers:
Right. And that bill is now in limbo with the Senate majority leader saying that Trump appears to have plans of his own. He said to reporters yesterday evening that, "If at some point the President concludes that it makes sense and adds value and leverage that he needs in those negotiations to move on the bill, then we'll do it. We'll be ready to go."
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Francesca Chambers covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thank you, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thank you, Taylor.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
For years, members of President Trump's inner circle have called on federal officials to release their files on Jeffrey Epstein. Since he took office, Trump administration officials have moved that campaign forward, suggesting new names from Epstein's purported client list and new accountability were in store. But many who were eagerly awaiting the administration's next steps are now disappointed what has been delivered. In a memo this month, the Justice Department and FBI said their systematic review of documents related to Epstein revealed no incriminating client list. After his team made such concrete promises, the report was tough for many Trump loyalists to swallow. Some of the president's strongest supporters were in uproar. You can read more about some of that friction and a timeline of what's been said with the link in today's show notes.
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The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be held tonight in Atlanta. The game finally lands in Georgia after initially being yanked in 2021, following the state's passage of controversial laws. It comes after catcher, Cal Raleigh, won the Home Run Derby last night. You can follow along with USA TODAY Sports.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of the Excerpt from USA TODAY.
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