During a press briefing on Thursday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta spoke about a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration's firing of Department of Education employees.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Our second question comes from John.
00:02John, you are now unmuted.
00:07Thank you for taking the question.
00:09I'm John Hilliard with the Boston Globe.
00:11And given the scope of cuts that have
00:14occurred at the US Department of Education,
00:16I was wondering, does this suit do anything
00:22to restore any of those cuts because the dramatic reduction
00:26in workforce for that agency?
00:28Or is there anything that states can
00:31do legally to compel the government
00:33to rehire these folks?
00:42This is Anne.
00:44The relief that we're seeking is to ensure
00:48that those employees who have already
00:51been riffed as part of the reduction in force
00:54are returned to their jobs, and that the money that
00:57has already been appropriated by Congress
01:00for all of the programs that exist today continue to flow.
01:07And I'll just add, in many ways, we're
01:09getting ahead of what may come.
01:13Right now, what we know to be true
01:15is that you have a president and an education secretary
01:18where their goal is to dismantle this agency in its entirety.
01:23So number one, we are pointing out to this court
01:26and to the public that they do not
01:28have the authority to dismantle an education
01:30agency or any agency that was created by Congress.
01:34It's unlawful.
01:35Second, that the functions of this agency,
01:39including those who were recently suspended or let go,
01:43they have critical functions that they serve,
01:47including, for example, here in Boston in our Civil Rights
01:50Division of the Department of Education
01:52that was shut down, critical roles that they play,
01:55and the disruption of that work and that flow of work
01:59is having a major impact on the Commonwealth,
02:02on our students, our school districts, and our families.
02:05And any potential funding threats
02:08that could come as they work to dismantle this agency
02:11as a whole will also have a devastating impact
02:15on our colleges, universities, students in K through 12
02:18and beyond, and so many other programs
02:21that these states rely on to be able to deliver education
02:25and a high-quality education to our constituents.
02:28And let me say that this lawsuit basically
02:31seeks to maintain the status quo,
02:34that the actions by the Trump administration
02:37basically exceed his authority, that this is a democracy and not
02:42a unitarian type of government, that it's arbitrary,
02:46that it's capricious, and that, as was mentioned
02:50by A.G. Campbell and others, that this agency was created
02:54by Congress and that the President of the United States
02:57cannot simply, by signing with a Sharpie,
03:01basically ignore the powers of Congress.
03:04He's trespassed on their powers.
03:06And all that we are doing is enforcing
03:08the law, which is enshrined in the Constitution
03:12and the rule of law all across this nation.
03:15And we would urge him to respect it.
03:17We have, in all of our cases thus far, we've been winning.
03:21And we're confident that we will seek a TRO
03:24and ultimately a preliminary injunction
03:26and that our students and our schools
03:28will continue to operate on behalf of the American public.
03:33And I'll just add, in response to the question,
03:35that the prayer of relief at the end of our complaint
03:37sets forth the relief that we're seeking.
03:39And it includes stopping, we call it enjoining,
03:43any additional actions that carry out the order
03:46to dismantle the Department of Education.
03:48And it also asks for a declaration of unlawfulness
03:52or invalidity of the actions taken so far.
03:54So they would be invalid, they would be reversed.
03:57So there's a reversal component
03:59and a blockage of additional action
04:03consistent with the executive order.
04:05And as A.G. James mentioned,
04:07it would bring us back to the status quo
04:08before the order was ever issued.