July 14, 2025 5:49PM # Right Supreme Court Call on Downsizing the US Department of Education By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... ![Department of Education cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2025-03/Department%20of%20Education%20Cropped.jpg?itok=pcR_U-cg) By a 6–3 vote, the US Supreme Court has [overturned a lower court decision](https://nypost.com/2025/07/14/us-news/supreme-court-lets-trump-move-forward-with-firing-hundreds-of-education-department-workers/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost) that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by firing nearly 1,400 US Department of Education employees. Both the Supreme Court [minority](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf) and the lower court argued that the staffing reductions were intended to dismantle the department, which only Congress can do because it makes laws, and the department is its creation. But the basic facts belie this conclusion. If the administration had wanted to unilaterally kill the department, it would have fired everyone, but it did not. Indeed, it [brought back 74 employees](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-education-secretary-mcmahon-testifies-on-2026-budget-request-in-house-hearing) after determining its cuts had gone deeper than “fat” and had hit “muscle.” And Secretary of Education Linda McMahon [has stated](https://ctmirror.org/2025/02/13/linda-mcmahon-confirmation-hearing/) that the administration believes Congress must end the department. The president of the United States is the chief executive, and determining how many people are needed to execute the laws created by Congress is the president’s prerogative. The Supreme Court rightly let that stand. Now, Congress and the president should work together to determine how to eliminate the [unconstitutional and wasteful](https://www.cato.org/blog/top-5-reasons-end-us-department-education) US Department of Education. ##### Related Tags [Constitution and Law](https://www.cato.org/constitution-law), [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Supreme Court](https://www.cato.org/supreme-court) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).