Donald got the green light: Mass layoffs are underway

The majority decision, which overturns a federal judge's earlier order freezing the layoffs, gives the administration the authority to continue its goal of restructuring and shrinking government agencies. That could lead to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs at government agencies like the State Department and the Treasury Department.

The judges stated in an unsigned opinion that they are not ruling on the legality of specific layoff plans in the federal administration, but that "the government probably has a chance of succeeding in its claim that the Executive Order and Memorandum are legal."

Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the conservative justices in the majority opinion.

"The plans themselves are not before this court at this stage and therefore we have no basis to consider whether they can and will be implemented within the legal constraints," Sonia Sotomayor wrote. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority opinion, calling it "the wrong decision at the wrong time, especially given how little this court knows about what is actually happening on the ground."

She warned that such an executive order "promises massive layoffs, widespread suspensions of federal programs and services, and the dismantling of much of the federal government created by Congress."

The decision stems from an executive order signed by Trump in February that directs federal agencies to work with the informal Department of Government Efficiency, which was led by Elon Musk until he left the White House, to implement significant staff reductions.

The order, which has sparked several lawsuits, was temporarily blocked in May by a federal judge in San Francisco. which ordered the White House to halt the layoffs of hundreds of thousands of government employees.