A federal judge in New York this week extended a temporary restraining order against the federal government’s attempt to shut down Job Corps centers across the country — including two in Virginia — but a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling raises questions about whether the order will stand.
The National Job Corps Association, along with contractors who administer Job Corps sites, sued the U.S. Department of Labor after it ordered the closure of 99 federally contracted sites across the country, including the Blue Ridge Job Corps Center in Marion and the Old Dominion Job Corps Center in Amherst.
The federal agency ordered the closures of the centers at the end of May, and the lawsuit was filed to halt that order on June 3. The suit argued that the Department of Labor did not follow any Congressionally mandated protocols in its attempt to shut down the contracted portion of the program. The federal agency claimed that it had not closed the contracted Job Corps Centers, but had simply paused operations by terminating its contracts with those centers and, therefore, there was no need to follow protocols mandated by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter on Wednesday sided with the plaintiffs in their request for a preliminary injunction, which would allow the centers to remain open while the lawsuit makes its way through the court. Carter extended an injunction that had been in place to halt the federal government’s effort to shut down the centers since June 9.
“Once Congress has passed legislation stating that a program like the Job Corps must exist, and set aside funding for that program, the [Department of Labor] is not free to do as it pleases; it is required to enforce the law as intended by Congress,” Carter wrote in his decision.
It is unclear if that decision has been rendered moot by a Friday U.S. Supreme Court ruling against nationwide injunctions, however. The high court ruled 6-3 that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, according to reporting by the Associated Press. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court after a federal judge in Washington state sided with a group of challengers who sought to block an executive order issued by the Trump administration to end birthright citizenship. The Washington judge ruled that the executive order was “blatantly unconstitutional” and blocked the executive branch from carrying out the order anywhere in the country.
Regardless, Heather Goodpasture, an outreach and admissions counselor at the Blue Ridge Job Corps center in Marion, said Friday that she remains hopeful.
The federal contractor for the Blue Ridge center, Serrato, has renewed the center’s contract through 2026, which she said is a huge sign of hope and an even bigger sigh of relief for the roughly 80 staff members at the center.
“We will now proceed with classes as normal, business as usual, and returning students who had previously gone back home,” Goodpasture said in an email on Friday. “We are optimistic, hopeful, and grateful to Job Corps political and community advocates who supported the program through the tumultuous journey we have had over the last four months. We still have work to do to get students back and welcome new ones, but we are up for the challenge!”
She noted that the largest obstacle faced by her center and others is obtaining and completing background checks for prospective students. Her department oversees the admissions process for prospective students at Blue Ridge as well as other centers, depending on where they live and what trade the student wants to pursue.
The federal department that conducts the background checks for all prospective Job Corps students has been shut down since mid-March, she added, amid cuts implemented by the new federal Department of Government Efficiency.
“We are now anxiously awaiting the opening of the background checks, which will most likely take months to get through the backlog of nearly 20,000 background checks that are sitting in the [queue] to be processed. Not to mention the new background checks outreach and admissions counselors will need to submit for new prospective students who will submit their applications in the near future,” Goodpasture said.
“I’m glad that a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to pause the Department of Labor’s illegal elimination of the Job Corps program. The Trump administration should cease its efforts to end Job Corps, which has been a lifeline for thousands of young people, and allow the program to continue,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a statement Friday.
The office of Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, did not respond to a request for comment.
Job Corps was launched in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a part of his War on Poverty domestic reform. It’s a U.S. government-sponsored residential education and job training program for low-income youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The program is administered by the Labor Department through funding appropriated by Congress. Its goal is to provide the vocational training that young people will need to secure employment, for those who may not have access to resources. The program has trained more than 3 million youths and young adults across the country since it started.
The program serves roughly 35,000 students annually at more than 120 centers throughout the country. More than 12,500 employees work at Job Corps centers nationwide, according to a fact sheet released by the organization. About 308 students arrived at Virginia’s two Job Corps centers between July and April, and there are more than 200 people employed between the two centers.