Overview

• The Supreme Court lifted a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Susan Illston on May 22, clearing the way for mass federal layoffs to proceed under the February executive order.
• Justices said they were not ruling on the legality of specific reduction plans and left those questions for lower courts to decide.
• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, warning that the court’s emergency intervention risked enabling an unprecedented restructuring without sufficient factual review.
• The executive order directs more than a dozen federal agencies to prepare large-scale reductions in force under the Department of Government Efficiency.
• A coalition of labor unions, non-profits and local governments led by the American Federation of Government Employees pledged to continue challenging the cuts as hundreds of thousands of workers remain on administrative leave or face potential job losses.