WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that a labor union says would cancel collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled that a key part of President Donald Trump鈥檚 March 27 order can鈥檛 be enforced at roughly three dozen agencies and departments where employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union.
The union, which represents nearly 160,000 federal government employees workers, sued to challenge Trump鈥檚 order. The union said it would lose more than half of its revenue and over two-thirds of its membership if the judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction.
Friedman said he would issue an opinion in several days to explain his . The ruling isn't the final word in the lawsuit. He gave the attorneys until May 2 to submit a proposal for how the case should proceed.
Some agencies, including the FBI, are exempt from a law requiring federal agencies to bargain with labor organizations over employment matters. Presidents can apply the exemption to agencies that have a 鈥減rimary function鈥� of performing intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work.
But no president before Trump tried to use the national security exemption to exclude an entire cabinet-level agency from the law鈥檚 requirements, according to the employees鈥� union. It said Trump鈥檚 order is designed to facilitate mass firings and exact 鈥減olitical vengeance鈥� against federal unions opposed to his agenda.
鈥淭he President鈥檚 use of the Statute鈥檚 narrow national security exemption to undo the bulk of the Statute鈥檚 coverage is plainly at odds with Congress鈥檚 expressed intent,鈥� .
Government lawyers argued that the court order requested by the union would interfere with the president鈥檚 duty to ensure federal workers are prepared to help protect national security.
鈥淚t is vital that agencies with a primary purpose of national security are responsive and accountable to the American people.鈥� .
The IRS is the largest bargaining unit represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. A day after Trump signed his order, the administration in Kentucky to seek a ruling that it can terminate the collective bargaining agreement for the IRS.
The union says the administration has 鈥渆ffectively conceded鈥� that its members don鈥檛 do national security work. The union members affected by the executive order also include employees of the Health and Human Services Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission.
The union said it will lose approximately $25 million in dues revenue over the next year. Some agencies, it says, already have stopped deducting union dues from employees鈥� pay.
鈥淚n the absence of preliminary injunctive relief, NTEU may no longer be able to exist in a manner that is meaningful to the federal workers for whom it fights,鈥� union lawyers wrote.
Government attorneys argued that the courts typically defer to the president鈥檚 judgment on national security matters.
鈥淓xecutive actions that are facially valid 鈥� that is, within the lawful authority of the executive 鈥� are entitled to a presumption of regularity,鈥� they wrote.
Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press
