Labor union members hold placards on the day of a rally in support of federal workers during a rush hour protest outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 24, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
A federal appeals court lifted an order on Friday that blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to unionize and collectively bargain over working conditions.
A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put on hold an injunction a judge issued at the behest of the National Treasury Employees Union that had blocked implementation of an executive order Trump issued in March.
The union and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
Trump’s order exempted more than a dozen federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. They include the departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services.
The union, which represents about 160,000 federal employees, argued the order violates federal workers’ labor rights and the Constitution.
But the appeals court’s majority said the union had failed to show it would suffer the type of irreparable harm that would justify the preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on April 25.
U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Justin Walker, whom Trump appointed in his first term, said the injunction, if allowed to remain in effect, would also impede Trump’s national-security prerogatives.
Trump relied on a national security exemption to exempt agencies that he said “have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”
“Preserving the President’s autonomy under a statute that expressly recognizes his national-security expertise is within the public interest,” the appeal’s court majority wrote.
U.S. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, dissented, saying the Trump administration had presented only “vague assertions” about potential interference with national security functions to justify its request for a stay of Friedman’s decision.
Trump’s order affects about 75% of the roughly 1 million federal workers represented by unions, according to court filings. NTEU has said the order applies to about 100,000 of its members.
The executive order significantly expanded an exception from collective bargaining for workers with duties affecting national security, such as certain employees of the CIA and FBI.
The Trump administration has filed separate lawsuits seeking to invalidate existing union contracts covering thousands of workers.