The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to downsize the federal workforce through layoffs, overturning lower courts' decisions to halt the reductions at 21 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.

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.