The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with plans to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education that were blocked by a federal judge, granting an emergency application from the administration that blocks the federal judge's ruling.

"The President must take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not set out to dismantle them," Sotomayor wrote.

An ideologically divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to fire hundreds of workers from the Education Department and continue other efforts to dismantle the agency. How we got here: The Education Department workers were placed on administrative leave in March and were to stop receiving salaries June 9 before a judge intervened at the request of Democratic-led states,