New York v. McMahon (DOGE Access 2025)

Case Overview

Twenty-one states sued to stop the Trump administration's elimination of roughly half the Department of Education's workforce through a mass reduction in force, a move that effectively transferred core statutory functions out of the agency without congressional authorization. The district court found the states were likely to succeed, calling the RIF likely unlawful, with no coherent basis for gutting a department Congress created by statute. The First Circuit refused to stay the injunction pending appeal, leaving the administration in the uncomfortable position of being legally required to maintain a department it has publicly committed to abolishing.