Attorney General Kris Mayes joined a lawsuit with 20 other Democratic attorneys general on Thursday to stop the layoffs of half of the U.S. Department of Education employees. The lawsuit comes on the heels of a broader lawsuit she joined last week with her Democratic colleagues, suing over the layoffs of probationary federal employees at nearly two dozen agencies, and a lawsuit filed last month over Trump cutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mayes has pushed back aggressively against the Trump administration since January, including filing nine lawsuits.
A press release from the Department of Education announcing the cuts said it was “part of the Department of Education’s final mission,” implying the agency is going to be shut down, which Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has called for.
Mayes claimed in a press release, “It is about tearing down public education by those who want to privatize it for profit.” However, she didn’t explain how it would shut down public education since the agency doesn’t oversee schools, which are all run on the local level. Nor did she or the lawsuit explain why local governments can’t take over any functions deemed vital. Although the agency is under the executive branch, the lawsuit claimed that only Congress can shut it down.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne disagreed with Mayes, stating that his agency could take over any necessary functions cut in the federal education agency. In a written statement on Thursday, he referred to her as “incompetent.”
“Our department has more than 600 people who do nothing but work on education. The Governor’s office has perhaps 3 or 4 people, but Mayes’ office has zero,” he said.
The Department of Education has 4,000 employees; the first cuts would reduce that to around 2,000. Republicans have been trying to eliminate the Department of Education for years.
Madi Biedermann, an agency spokesperson, wrote to States Newsroom in a statement that the cuts were “implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws” and “are strategic, internal-facing cuts that will not directly impact students and families.”
Mayes claimed that the Trump administration didn’t fire the probationary employees for unsatisfactory performance or conduct but “were clearly part of the administration’s attempt to restructure and downsize the entire federal government.”
So far, federal judges appointed by Democrats have sided with progressive lawsuits filed by government unions requesting injunctions against the layoffs.
In addition to the three lawsuits over federal employee cuts, since January, Mayes has sued the Trump administration over cutting USAID spending, cutting spending on controversial healthcare research, and ending birthright citizenship.
She and the other attorneys general intervened in a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s cutting off access to Obamacare for illegal immigrants. Mayes organized town halls to criticize Trump’s spending cuts, referring to Elon Musk as an “unelected weirdo billionaire.” She and the other attorneys general sued over Musk’s delegation of power and sued over Musk and DOGE investigating the IRS.
She attacked Vice President J.D. Vance for criticizing activist judges and called Trump “dictatorial and authoritarian.” On Thursday, she issued a statement with other Democratic attorneys general supporting Democrats in the U.S. Senate attempted to block the passage of a continuing resolution.
Mayes is prosecuting Arizona’s alternate slate of electors for Trump from the 2020 election. Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. The judge has indicated he may dismiss the prosecutions due to violating the First Amendment. Mayes denounced the January 6 pardons, calling them “an assault on the rule of law.” She offered to hire prosecutors and FBI agents involved in going after the January 6 people whom Trump fired.
Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, said that Mayes could find herself in prison for obstructing the Trump administration. On X, he posted a link to an article about Mayes vowing to defy Trump on illegal immigration. The DOJ is going after local and state officials who don’t follow the law — such as executive orders — enacted by the Trump administration, especially on illegal immigration. In December 2023, the Maricopa County Republican Committee passed a unanimous resolution calling to impeach Mayes over her prosecution lawfare and hostility to election integrity.
Layoffs have begun in Arizona at the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Department of Veterans Affairs. About 75,000 federal employees nationwide accepted Trump’s buyout offer, equivalent to 3.3 percent of the federal government’s 2.3 million workers. The layoffs exempt public safety, immigration enforcement, military personnel, and law enforcement and focus on nonessential services and DEI-related jobs.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kris Mayes” by Kris Mayes.
What legal rights do states have in federal employment, NONE.