The Supreme Court on Friday granted President Donald Trump his first major legal victory since returning to office, allowing his administration to temporarily freeze millions of dollars in federal grants allocated to states for combating teacher shortages.
In a narrow 5-4 decision, the court’s majority sided with the administration, while Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.
In its unsigned opinion, the court stated that the states had demonstrated sufficient financial resources to maintain their programs independently. However, the justices agreed that the Trump administration presented a strong argument that any funds distributed during the ongoing legal dispute would likely be unrecoverable, CNN reported Friday.
If the states ultimately win the case, the court said, “they can recover any wrongfully withheld funds through” further litigation, the outlet noted.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson all dissented, each either writing or joining opinions outlining their objections. Roberts noted that he would have denied the stay but declined to elaborate on his reasoning.
The majority consisted of the court’s five conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
“This is unquestionably a win for the Trump administration, but on remarkably narrow and modest terms,” Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, told the outlet.
