Attorney General Dan Rayfield today won a court order » stopping the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED). On March 13, Attorney General Rayfield joined a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in suing the administration after it announced plans to eliminate 50 percent of ED’s workforce.

“This court order is a necessary step to stop a reckless plan that would hurt Oregon students and families,” Rayfield said. “For example, if special education funding is disrupted, schools in rural Oregon could lose the staff and resources they rely on to support kids with disabilities. We need to protect those services.”

Following a March 20 Executive Order directing the closure of ED and President Trump’s March 21 announcement that, in addition to implementing layoffs, the Department must “immediately” transfer student loan management and special education services outside of the Department, Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition sought a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the mass layoffs and transfer of services. Today the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the preliminary injunction, halting the administration’s policies that would dismantle ED and ordering all employees who were fired as part of the layoffs to be reinstated.

Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition argued in their lawsuit and motion for a preliminary injunction that the Trump administration’s attacks on ED are illegal and unconstitutional. The ED is an executive agency authorized by Congress, with numerous laws creating its various programs and funding streams. The coalition’s lawsuit asserts that the executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally dismantle it without an act of Congress. In addition, Attorney General Rayfield and the coalition argue that ED’s mass layoffs violate the Administrative Procedure Act.

Joining Attorney General Rayfield in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.