The Supreme Court's conservatives said it was a federal judge in San Francisco, not President Trump, who exceeded her authority.

The administration argues that the president does not need additional authorization from Congress to conduct agency-wide layoffs. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the Supreme Court’s order, saying it “stopped lawless lower courts from restricting President Trump’s authority over federal personnel.”

Federal agencies across government can resume laying off their employees en masse after the Supreme Court reversed a court order that barred those reductions, with several agencies likely to move swiftly to start cutting staff.