Supreme Court ruling allows Trump’s federal workforce cuts to proceed

by Jeff Andrews

President Donald Trump has secured a big win in his effort to reduce the footprint of the federal government.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the administration can proceed with plans to lay off thousands of federal workers and cut funding to various federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The ruling temporarily suspends a lower court’s decision to block the Trump administration’s cuts after the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service moved with breakneck speed to fire workers and slash agency funding in the opening months of Trump’s second term.

The justices said they are not ruling on the legality of any of Trump’s reductions. The ruling was unsigned and did not disclose the vote count, although Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson released a public dissent.

“It is not this court’s role to swoop in and second-guess a lower court’s factual findings,” she wrote.

The DOGE cuts set off a wave of legal challenges regarding their constitutionality. The one the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday came from a group of labor unions, advocacy groups and local governments.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco had put Trump’s cuts on hold while the legal challenges played out.

“Today’s decision has dealt a serious blow to our democracy and puts services that the American people rely on in grave jeopardy,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

The decision has major implications for HUD, which is one of the agencies targeted for heavy cuts.

In the opening days of Trump’s term, he called for a funding freeze on 100 HUD programs, only to backtrack later. The administration also called for a staff cut of 50%. Trump’s 2026 budget request sought $33 billion in funding cuts at the department.

But these moves also encountered challenges. In March, a federal judge temporarily canceled HUD’s cuts to fair housing grants. And in June, an internal memo raised questions as to whether staffing cuts would allow HUD to perform its basic functions.