The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a lower court order that blocked sweeping layoffs of federal workers at nearly two dozen agencies while a legal battle over President Trump's plans to drastically cut the size of the government moves forward.

Before Tuesday, a district court had barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees en masse as his executive order calling for “large-scale reductions in force” undergoes legal challenges.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a contentious executive order ending birthright citizenship after certifying a lawsuit as a class action, effectively the only way he could impose such a far-reaching limit after a Supreme Court ruling last month.

After Supreme Court Justice Jackson issued a solo dissent against President Trump’s federal layoff plan, Jonathan Turley criticized her decision as 'judicial abandon.'

Big picture: The layoffs are part of efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the goal is a reduction of 15 percent, or roughly 2,000 employees.

The high court said it had based its decision on the legality of Trump’s executive order, and didn’t rule on whether any reorganization plans broke the law.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Donald Trump's administration to pursue mass government job cuts and the sweeping downsizing of numerous agencies, a decision that could lead to tens of thousands of layoffs while dramatically reshaping the federal bureaucracy.

U.S. diplomats in Washington are bracing for cuts to the State Department workforce, with dismissal notices expected to hit inboxes as soon as Friday, according to three State Department officials with knowledge of the plans.