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Reuters
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Judge dismisses Columbia University faculty lawsuit over Trump funding cuts, demands
NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Trump administration by two labor unions for Columbia University faculty that challenged funding cuts and demands to overhaul student discipline and boost oversight for a Middle Eastern studies department. U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Manhattan said the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers lacked legal standing to sue, with Columbia itself "conspicuously absent" from the case. "Our democracy cannot very well function if individual judges issue extraordinary relief to every plaintiff who clamors to object to executive action," Vyskocil wrote. "If any funds have been wrongfully withheld, such funds may be recovered at the end of a successful lawsuit by the appropriate plaintiff in an appropriate forum," she added. "It is not the role of a district court judge to direct the policies of the Executive Branch first and ask questions later." Both plaintiffs plan to appeal. "The Trump administration's threats and coercion at Columbia University are part of an authoritarian agenda that extends far beyond Columbia," Todd Wolfson, president of the professors' union, said in a statement. "We will continue to fight back." Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, ruled 12 days after the Department of Education threatened to revoke Columbia's accreditation over the university's alleged failure to protect Jewish students, including from pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia was the first major U.S. university targeted in President Donald Trump's effort to conform higher education to his policies. It has acceded to some White House demands, including by boosting security and announcing a review, opens new tab of its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department. Other schools, including Harvard University, have fought Trump in court. The labor unions' lawsuit originally targeted $400 million of Columbia funding cuts, and later sought an injunction to prevent the Trump administration from interfering with more than $5 billion of grants and contracts. Vyskocil said that to the extent the unions "feel chilled" by recent changes at Columbia, they have not shown that the changes were "merely the 'predictable' response" to White House demands. The case is American Association of University Professors et al v. U.S. Department of Justice et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-02429.
Bloomberg
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
US Defeats Teachers Unions' Lawsuit to Restore Columbia Funding
The Trump administration won dismissal of a lawsuit by two unions seeking to stop the withholding of $400 million in federal funds from Columbia University, saying the groups didn't have the legal right to challenge the decision. The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers filed the lawsuit in response to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon's announcement that the administration was pulling grants and contracts from the school following a series of pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Administration Asks Justices to Clear the Way for Cuts to Education Department
Lawyers for the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to move ahead with plans to dismantle the Education Department by lifting a lower court order that had prevented department workers from being fired. The request came as an emergency application, the latest in a flurry of such appeals to the Supreme Court filed since the start of the second Trump administration. President Trump signed an executive order on March 20 that instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin shutting down her agency, a move that requires approval by Congress and that set the stage for the legal fight over the federal government's role in the country's schools. In Friday's filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to overturn a temporary ruling issued in late May by a federal judge in Massachusetts that had ordered government officials to reinstate thousands of fired workers. Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit on May 22, a setback for the administration. In his filing to the justices, Mr. Sauer argued that the lower court judge had 'thwarted the executive branch's authority to manage the Department of Education.' A pair of school districts in Massachusetts, the American Federation of Teachers and 21 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit in March, seeking to block Mr. Trump's executive order. They also sought to walk back a massive round of layoffs in the Education Department announced that month that would affect about half of its employees. Judge Joun sided against the administration, finding that the government's actions may have amounted to an illegal shutdown of the agency, which by law only Congress has the authority to abolish. On June 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld Judge Joun's temporary order. The court found that the challengers were likely to suffer substantial injury were the order to be lifted, as the layoffs would make it difficult for the department to carry out its statutory obligations. The justices requested that responses to the application be filed by June 13. The case marks the second time that Judge Joun has been asked to examine the Trump administration's efforts to reshape education policy. Judge Joun temporarily ordered the Trump administration in March to release $65 million in teacher-training grants that had been suspended as part of the president's plans to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies. In that matter, an appeals court upheld the temporary order. But the Supreme Court overruled Judge Joun in April and said that the grants could be suspended.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Judge Blocks Trump Administration From Dismantling Education Department
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Trump's executive order aimed at dismantling the Education Department and ordered officials to reinstate thousands of fired employees in a ruling that marked at least a temporary setback for the president and his plans. The decision from Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts was a preliminary injunction, meaning it will remain in force until the case is resolved or a higher court overturns it. The injunction was requested by a pair of school districts in Massachusetts, the American Federation of Teachers and other plaintiffs who sued Mr. Trump in March to block his executive order. Judge Joun agreed with their argument that the order and a massive round of layoffs that preceded it equated to an illegal shutdown of the agency, which only Congress can abolish. 'The record abundantly reveals that defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute,' Judge Joun wrote in his order. Madi Biedermann, the Education Department's deputy assistant secretary for communications, said the administration would immediately challenge the decision while taking aim at the judge. 'Once again, a far-left judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs,' Ms. Biedermann said in a statement. '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 ax to grind.' Judge Joun, an Army and National Guard veteran, was a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts before President Biden appointed him to the federal bench in 2022. In March, he temporarily ordered the Trump administration to release $65 million in teacher-training grants that had been suspended over Mr. Trump's efforts to root out diversity, equity and inclusion policies. While an appeals court upheld that order, the Supreme Court in April overruled Judge Joun and said that the suspension could remain in place. The administration has maintained that firing nearly half of the Education Department's employees was lawful and aimed at making the agency more efficient and functional. Linda McMahon, the education secretary, told the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that as many as three-fourths of the roughly 2,000 staff members who had been fired at her agency had lost their jobs because of downsizing efforts overseen by Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. About 74 workers had since been rehired, she said. Ilana Krepchin, chairwoman of the Somerville School Committee, which is one of the plaintiffs, hailed the ruling as a victory for students, teachers and families. 'Our public education system is too important to be undermined by actions that threaten our students' rights and opportunities,' Ms. Krepchin said. 'We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our students' futures remain bright.'
CNN
22-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Judge blocks Trump administration's mass layoffs at the Education Department
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump's goal to dismantle the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president's campaign promises. The injunction was requested in a lawsuit filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers, along with other education groups. In their lawsuit, the groups said the layoffs amounted to an illegal shutdown of the Education Department. They said it left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws. In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a 'stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America's most vulnerable student populations.' Layoffs of that scale, he added, 'will likely cripple the Department.' Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement. The Trump administration says the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said. The administration said restructuring the agency 'may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished' but it's committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.
