A court-ordered pause in May covered nearly two dozen federal agencies at different stages of executing President Trump’s directive for mass layoffs. The Supreme Court said the administration could proceed.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the Trump administration to fire federal workers.The big picture: The decision, which lifts a federal judge's earlier order freezing the cuts, gives the administration power to resume its goal of reshaping and scaling back federal agencies.

The justices said they were not ruling on the legality of specific firing plans but simply allowing the administration to launch such efforts while litigation continues.