A district judge on Thursday blocked President Trump’s executive order calling for the closure of the Department of Education — as well as against the reduction in force that laid off half of the agency's workers.

The ruling is a blow to Trump’s efforts to eliminate the department and the quick actions taken by Education Secretary Linda McMahon to make that campaign pledge a reality.  

The plaintiffs “have provided an in-depth look into how the massive reduction in staff has made it effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutorily mandated functions,” District Judge Myong Joun said.  

The Hill has reached out to the Education Department. 

The ruling also stifles Trump’s directive to move student loans and programs for students with disabilities outside the Department of Education.  

The Trump administration is expected to file an appeal to the ruling as McMahon has insisted the dismantling of the Education Department will follow the law.  

“I think [Trump] was correct in saying that we were going to do everything legally. That’s what he has said to me from the very beginning,” McMahon said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier. 

In his ruling, Joun wrote the plaintiffs have demonstrated irreparable harm with school districts having delays in their federal funding and the layoffs resulted in the “practical elimination” of the essential offices in the Federal Student Aid office.  

“The Department’s actions have directly impacted the FAFSA system and risk its functionality,” he wrote.  

Only an act of Congress can definitively shut down the Education Department, but Trump and McMahon are seeking to reduce its size and scope as much as possible while also calling on lawmakers to eliminate it entirely.

—Updated at 11:26 a.m. EDT