The decision comes months after the Supreme Court ruled in a parallel case that the Education Department could move forward with firing nearly half its employees. After months of uncertainty, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that the Education Department can move forward with firing half of the 550 employees at its Office for Civil Rights. Those RIFs prompted multiple lawsuits against the department, including New York v. McMahon and the Victim Rights Law Center v. Department of Education; while the former challenged RIFs across the entire department, the latter case was restricted to the RIFs within OCR. Then, in July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the McMahon case that the department could proceed with firing half its staff. On Monday the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit granted that request, giving OCR the green light to fire half its staff.