California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the unlawful mass firing of nearly 50 percent of all employees at the U.S. Department of Education.

The firings are a significant step toward implementing the president’s directive to eliminate the Department of Education and are already devastating the department’s ability to carry out critical functions. For example, a drastic reduction of workers in the department’s Office for Civil Rights has shuttered at least seven regional offices, including those in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Dallas and Cleveland.

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the Trump administration cannot abolish the Department of Education and cannot disrupt or override — through the mass firings of employees or otherwise — the statutory functions and programs that fall under its purview.

“The Trump administration’s attempt to gut the Department of Education’s workforce is another step in its end goal of shuttering the department for good,” said Bonta, in a news release. “In doing so, the Trump administration ignores the invaluable role the Department of Education plays in ensuring the health, safety and education of our children — administering programs that assist children from low-income families, providing vocational training, and enforcing anti-discrimination laws, among countless other responsibilities fundamental to our educational system. Dismantling the Department of Education from within would have catastrophic consequences — and like many of the Trump administration’s actions since taking office, is blatantly illegal. It shouldn’t be too much to ask for a president to follow the law, but for the eighth time in as many weeks, we’ll see him in court.”

On March 11, the Department of Education initiated a reduction in workforce impacting nearly 50 percent of the department’s employees.

In the March 13 lawsuit, Bonta and a multistate coalition demonstrate that President Trump’s directive to shut down the department is unlawful and cannot stand. The coalition establishes that the Trump administration cannot undo the many acts of Congress that authorize the department, dictate its responsibilities, and appropriate funds for it to administer. Its attempt to do so through the mass firings violates the separation of powers and the executive branch’s obligation to take care that the law is faithfully executed. Further, as the complaint details, these firings exceed the department’s authority under the law, are arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.