The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals has maintained a previous court injunction that blocked the Trump administration from enacting significant layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education, part of a lawsuit whose plaintiffs include the Easthampton School Committee.

The lawsuit had been filed against the administration after an executive order by President Donald Trump instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take steps to facilitate the closure of the department. Mass firings and some voluntary departures from the department also resulted in the sudden loss of about 2,000 employees earlier this month.

Judge Myong Joun of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in May that ordered the administration to reinstate all workers the department had laid off.

The administration tried to appeal the decision, arguing that the reduction in force, also known as RIF, would not prevent the department from carrying out its legal obligations. But their arguments didn’t sway the appeals court, who, led by Chief Judge David J. Barron, ruled against the administration on Wednesday.

“We see no basis on which to conclude that the appellants have made a ‘strong showing’ that the District Court likely clearly erred in finding that the RIF made it effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutory obligations,” Barron wrote in the court’s decision. “The appellants do not even attempt to engage with the District Court’s record-based findings about the extent of the RIF or the intent behind both it and the transfer of functions to shut down the Department.”

In addition to the Easthampton School District, other plaintiffs involved in the suit include the Somerville Public School Committee, the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, and Service Employees International Union.

“I’m very glad they ruled in our favor,” said Easthampton School Committee Member Sam Hunter in an interview. “We assumed that this is what was going to happen, but you never know these days.”

Jessica Tang, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, issued a statement in support of the appeals court ruling on Wednesday.

“Today’s decision reaffirmed that the White House is not above the law and we will never stop fighting to protect our students, educators, and the resources they need to thrive,” Tang said. “We hope the Administration follows the law and ends their campaign against public education. Their actions, including the mass illegal firings at the Department of Education, are jeopardizing the futures of millions of American children, especially the most vulnerable students in our classrooms.”

The complaint filed by the plaintiffs argues that staffing cuts to the department — including the entire staff of the Office of English Language Acquisition, more than half of the enforcement positions for the Office of Civil Rights, the team that supervises the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and attorneys providing guidance to the department — have rendered it incapable of carrying out its legal duties.

Democracy Forward, a Washington, D.C.-based legal organization, is representing the plaintiffs free of charge in this legal action.

Easthampton’s interim superintendent, Maureen Binienda, previously told the Gazette that Easthampton Public Schools received roughly $887,000 this fiscal year from the Department of Education. Of that funding, $554,000 goes toward supporting students with disabilities through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Hunter said the decision was likely to be appealed again to the U.S. Supreme Court, but continued to express confidence that the courts would continue to side with Easthampton and the other plaintiffs.

“I feel a bit better about it than I did when we first joined the lawsuit, to be honest,” Hunter said. “I know that our partners at Democracy Forward have been working on getting ready for this.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.