A federal judge in Washington, D.C., struck down core provisions of three executive orders President Donald Trump issued to curb union power in the federal workforce late Friday.
U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee, found that the orders violate the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Act (FSLMRS) in a sprawling, 122-page decision.
Trump issued the trio of orders on May 25. Among other provisions, the directives restrict the amount of time federal workers may spend on official union duties, reduce performance-improvement periods for ineffective employees and narrow the range of issues that agencies and unions negotiate over when setting contracts.
“These executive orders make it easier for agencies to remove poor-performing employees and ensure that taxpayer dollars are more efficiently used,” White House Domestic Policy Council Director Andrew Bremberg said.
