SCOTUS allows Trump to move ahead with cuts to teacher training grants
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The U.S. Supreme Court is shown at dusk in June 2023 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Friday sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to withhold federal education grants for teacher training while the case proceeds at a lower court.
Why it matters: The decision marks a Supreme Court victory for President Trump as he slashes federal spending with the help of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
- Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the court's three dissenting liberal justices in the 5-4 decision.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration on March 26 asked the Supreme Court to pause a District of Massachusetts order to reinstate millions in federal education grants.
- The Department of Education terminated about $65 million, or 104 professional development grants, that it found at odds with the administration's anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
State of play: The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in several cases as lower courts block Trump's policies at a particularly high rate.
- In March, the high court refused to halt a lower court's ruling that required the administration to unfreeze about $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments.
What they're saying: "If respondents ultimately prevail, they can recover any wrongfully withheld funds through suit in an appropriate forum," the majority wrote on Friday.
- "And if respondents instead decline to keep the programs operating, then any ensuing irreparable harm would be of their own making."
Zoom in: The Massachusetts restraining order called for the government to pay out its obligations, but the Supreme Court majority said the government is likely to prove that the District Court lacked the jurisdiction to order payments.
The other side: "Reinstating the challenged grant-termination policy will inflict significant harm on grantees — a fact that the Government barely contests," Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a dissent that was joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
- "Worse still, the Government does not even deign to defend the lawfulness of its actions."
Go deeper: Trump administration asks SCOTUS to allow teaching grant cuts
