Politics
Trump Secures Major Legal Win on Federal Workforce Overhaul
By Jake Beardslee · May 17, 2025
Appeals Court Reverses Block on Trump’s Union Order
President Donald Trump won a key legal battle on Friday as a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had prevented the enforcement of his March executive order stripping union bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal employees. The case, originally brought by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), argued the order violated both federal labor protections and the Constitution. Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
Judges Split in 2–1 Ruling on Union Rights Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the 2-1 decision, with Judges Karen Henderson and Justin Walker siding with the Trump administration. Judge Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee, dissented, criticizing the administration’s justification as “vague assertions” and questioned its urgency: “How can the Government argue that the district court injunction will cause irreparable injury when the Government itself voluntarily imposed that same constraint?” geralt / Pixabay
Injunction Overturned, Key Departments Affected
The ruling reversed an April 25 injunction from U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, which had temporarily blocked the executive order. That order removed over a dozen federal departments, including Defense, State, and Justice, from union bargaining obligations with their staff. succo / Pixabay
Judges Argue National Security Justifies Executive Power
In their majority opinion, Judges Henderson and Walker argued, “Preserving the President's autonomy under a statute that expressly recognizes his national-security expertise is within the public interest.”The NTEU has not yet announced whether it will appeal the decision. If the ruling stands, nearly a million federal workers could be affected, including roughly 100,000 NTEU members, according to court documents. The White House / Wikimedia
