President Donald Trump secured a major victory as a federal appeals court has allowed him to start making sweeping government changes.
Specifically, the court cleared the way for the administration to strip collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
The 2-1 ruling dismantles union power in government agencies, making federal workers more accountable and less protected by union bosses.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a lower court’s injunction that had temporarily blocked the president’s March executive order.
The ruling is a significant setback for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
NTEU had sued to stop the implementation of President Trump’s directive, which affected over 75% of unionized federal workers across a dozen major agencies.
Trump-appointed Judge Justin Walker and Bush-appointed Judge Karen Henderson wrote the majority opinion.
They determined that the union failed to demonstrate it would suffer irreparable harm while the case proceeds.
Their ruling affirmed the president’s authority to prioritize national security concerns over union privileges in federal agencies.
It read:
“The Government is likely to prevail in its appeal of the district court’s preliminary injunction. To obtain a preliminary injunction, a plaintiff must demonstrate that it will suffer irreparable harm while the case is pending. The National Treasury Employees Union failed to establish irreparable harm.”
The executive order covers major departments, including Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, and State.
It uses a national security exemption for agencies involved in intelligence and security work.
Critics have long argued that union protections make it nearly impossible to fire underperforming federal employees, creating inefficiency and waste at taxpayer expense.
In their ruling, the judges directly addressed the union’s claims of harm: “The Union says it will suffer two irreparable harms. Neither qualifies.”
The court rejected NTEU’s argument about losing bargaining power, noting that the government had already delayed any union decertification until the litigation concluded.
“The Union claims that a stay will ‘nullify the collective-bargaining rights of over one-hundred thousand NTEU-represented federal workers.’ But that ignores the Government’s self-imposed restrictions, so it misses the mark,” the ruling said.
The judges also dismissed claims of financial injury from potentially lost union dues, ruling such losses could be recovered through normal monetary damages if the union ultimately prevails.
President Trump’s executive order affects roughly one million federal workers currently represented by unions.
The president has long criticized federal employee unions for protecting incompetent workers and creating bureaucratic roadblocks to efficient government operation.
His administration is also pursuing separate lawsuits to invalidate existing union contracts.
The lone dissent came from Biden-appointed Judge J. Michelle Childs, who criticized the administration’s national security claims as vague.
For supporters of limited government, the ruling represents a critical step toward fulfilling President Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaign promises.
These included reforming federal agencies, reducing bureaucratic bloat, and making government workers more accountable to the American people.
