Overview

• In an unsigned 8-1 ruling with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, the Supreme Court lifted Judge Susan Illston’s May injunction that had blocked President Trump’s reductions in force.
• Trump’s February executive order directed more than 21 federal agencies to plan large-scale workforce cuts and restructurings under the Department of Government Efficiency.
• The high court expressly declined to assess the legality of any specific reduction-in-force or reorganization plans, leaving those questions to lower courts in the Ninth Circuit and district court.
• The Ninth Circuit had earlier denied the administration’s emergency stay in a 2-1 decision, prompting a June petition to the Supreme Court.
• The decision highlights an intensifying separation-of-powers dispute over unilateral executive authority and illustrates the court’s expanding use of its shadow docket for urgent presidential challenges.