The Supreme Court opens the door to mass federal layoffs
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
On Tuesday the Supreme Court lifted an order by a lower court that prevented the Trump administration from laying off thousands of federal workers. While the order was unsigned – meaning that the justices have not yet ruled on its legality – this is one of several recent decisions in which the court has sided with President Donald Trump in his effort to upend the government by firing federal workers and regulators.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Supreme Court correspondent Ann Marimow about how the court came to this decision and what the rulings could mean for Trump’s agenda in the future.
Today’s show was produced by Arjun Singh, with help from Elana Gordon and Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Debbi Wilgoren.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Donald Trump's second term has been an exercise in remaking the federal government. |
| 0:07.0 | His administration has fired tens of thousands of federal workers across almost all agencies. |
| 0:16.0 | But a legal question has loomed over these actions. |
| 0:19.0 | Can Trump unilaterally slice up the federal government however he wants? |
| 0:24.4 | Yesterday, the Supreme Court weighed in. |
| 0:26.8 | At least for now, Trump can continue to order mass layoffs. |
| 0:33.9 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm Colby Iquowitz. |
| 0:40.9 | It's Wednesday, July 9th. |
| 0:48.0 | Today, we'll unpack the Supreme Court's decision to allow Trump to go ahead and order mass layoffs at federal agencies. |
| 0:54.7 | The Post Anne Maramo joins me to explain this case, how it worked its way up and into the so-called shadow docket, |
| 0:58.2 | and what this ruling could mean for the future of presidential powers. |
| 1:05.0 | Anne, hi, thanks for joining us. |
| 1:06.3 | Thanks for having me, Colby. |
| 1:11.4 | So, Anne, I want to understand, so there's been a new ruling from the Supreme Court this week. |
| 1:13.5 | And the case itself is kind of confusing. |
| 1:18.7 | I'm also a little confused how the Supreme Court is ruling on cases, even though its term ended last month. |
| 1:22.8 | So can you just walk me through kind of the beats of this, how we got to this point? |
| 1:23.6 | Sure. |
| 1:24.4 | So you're right. |
| 1:29.0 | The Supreme Court's term officially ended on June 27th when they issued their final opinions from the regular merits docket. What we're talking about today |
| 1:35.1 | are the court's emergency orders that can come at any time. And these are in response to requests |
... |
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