WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a federal district court issued an order prohibiting the U.S. Department of Labor from closing Job Corps centers across the country. The court granted a motion filed on behalf of seven Job Corps students and a nationwide class seeking to stop the planned closures pending final resolution of the case. The plaintiffs are represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
“The SPLC applauds the Court’s recognition that the Trump Department of Labor exceeded its authority and unlawfully shuttered the Job Corps program, which plays an essential role in strengthening Southern communities. This program has consistently reduced unemployment and homelessness, empowered underserved communities—especially for Black and Brown youth—and breaks the cycle of poverty through education, training, and opportunity,” said Scott McCoy, deputy legal director, SPLC. “Now is the time to double down: Job Corps is a direct investment in our nation’s future which must be protected, expanded, and fully funded to deliver on its promise of equity and upward mobility.”
“The Department of Labor’s decision to abruptly close Job Corps centers across the country, ignoring legal requirements and literally putting vulnerable young people on the street, was callous, and as the Judge today agreed, illegal,” said Adam Pulver, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “The Department’s ludicrous argument to the court, that in shutting down 99 Job Corps centers it was not actually closing those centers, was a naked attempt to evade clear law.”
Congress established Job Corps in 1964 to provide young people with education and vocational training. Currently, Job Corps enrollment is limited to low-income individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who face barriers to employment, including homelessness. Participants in the programs receive education and training, as well as housing, a biweekly living allowance, and medical, dental, and mental health services.
At the start of 2025, there were 99 Job Corps centers throughout the country operated by contractors pursuant to two-year contracts. But on May 29, 2025, the Department of Labor announced the suspension of the Job Corps program and that all 99 Job Corps centers would be closed by June 30, 2025. Last month, a New York court put the closures on hold, but earlier this week allowed the closures to go into effect as to 63 of the centers. As a result, thousands of vulnerable young people had been at risk of losing access to Job Corps education and training, their place to live, and their access to health care and other services in the coming days.
In its ruling today, the court held that the “the record unequivocally demonstrates that DOL unlawfully ‘closed’ all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers,” in violation of requirements imposed by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The court thus granted the students’ request for a stay of DOL’s directive to close the 99 centers.
The court’s decision is available here. More information about the case is available here.
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