A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed President Trump’s executive order restricting collective bargaining rights at certain federal agencies to move forward, ruling that unions are unlikely to win their First Amendment retaliation claims.
The order, signed March 27, exempts select agencies from federal labor law protections that guarantee government workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. A coalition of major unions sued, arguing the move was retaliation for their criticism of Trump’s efforts to shrink and restructure the federal workforce.
A lower court had temporarily blocked the order, but the Ninth Circuit vacated that injunction. Judge Daniel Bress wrote that even if unions showed signs of retaliation, “the government has shown that the president would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct.” He added the order “discloses no retaliatory animus on its face” and centers on national security concerns.
The court said blocking the order would harm the United States, calling national security “an urgent objective of the highest order.”
Source: Courthouse News Service
