The Supreme Court decision this week giving President Donald Trump the go-ahead to largely dismantle the Department of Education is just one development this summer in what has been a broad federal retreat from education.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court paused a lower court order that had reinstated 1,400 Education Department employees laid off by the Trump's administration.

The majority did not explain its decision in the brief, unsigned order. The court's three liberal justices opposed the order. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority handed Trump the power to repeal laws passed by Congress “by firing all those necessary to carry them out.”

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

After a federal judge in Los Angeles barred “roving patrols” by immigration agents in seven California counties, the Trump administration asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to resume operations that lawyers for the state have argued are unconstitutional.