UNITED STATES Supreme Court building (Flickr/Geoff Livingston).

The U.S Supreme Count on Monday voted 6-3 to allow President Donald Trump to continue to downsize the federal Department of Education and lay off almost 1,400 employees.

According to the Associated Press, the court paused an order from a Boston federal district judge who had issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s plans.

Trump said the court has “handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country” and will return many of the department’s work to the states.

Dissenting was Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Writing on behalf of the three liberal justices, she proclaimed that “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it.”

Also on Monday, over 20 states – most of them “blue” – sued the administration over billions of dollars in education funding that have been “frozen.”

Obama wants Democrats to “toughen up”

Former President Barack Obama has told fellow Democrats to “just toughen up” in their efforts to battle the political agenda of President Donald Trump.

FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.

The New York Times reports that – in a private gathering on Friday – Obama said “It’s going to take a little less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions.”

He indicated that many prominent Democrats are being “cowed” by the Trump Administration’s bold efforts to dismantle many of the acts and programs of the last several decades.

The U.S., he said, was in danger of retreating from the social progress made since World War II, a time in which “everything kept getting better, more or less.”

Weather: Steady as it goes

The skies will be remarkably calm for the next several days over our West Orange County cities. The forecast for Tuesday calls from morning clouds and afternoon sun. Partly cloudy skies will be in place Wednesday through Friday. Daytime highs will range from 76 to 77 with overnight lows from 62 to 64.