California on Thursday joined other Democratic-led states in suing the Trump administration, seeking to halt massive layoffs at the Department of Education, alleging the cuts amount to an illegal shutdown of its crucial work to administer student loans, protect civil rights and aid poor districts and students with disabilities.
In the suit, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta joined attorneys representing 19 Democratic states and the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges staff reductions that Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced this week are a “reckless” attempt to carry out President Trump’s desire to close the department by making it unable to carry out work mandated by Congress.
The Trump administration began dismantling the department this week, laying off about half of the agency’s employees and carrying out what McMahon has said is key to the department’s “final mission” to no longer exist.
“It is a bedrock constitutional principle that the president and his agencies cannot make law. Rather, they can only—and indeed, they must — implement the laws enacted by Congress, including those statutes that create federal agencies and dictate their duties,” the suit said. “The
executive thus can neither outright abolish an agency nor incapacitate it by cutting away the personnel required to implement the agency’s statutorily-mandated duties.”
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.
The suit asks a judge to order a stop to the layoffs, which are to take effect March 21. The staff reduction would leave 2,183 workers at the department, down from 4,133 in January.
Bonta filed the lawsuit with attorneys from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont and the District of…