Another day, another district court judge smacked down by an appeals court.
A federal appeals court has handed President Donald Trump a big win, giving him the green light, at least for now, to strip collective bargaining rights from employees at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, The Washington Times reported.
The court ruled that the law gives the White House broad powers in this area, particularly when national security is at stake.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Friday, putting a hold on a lower court decision that had blocked Trump’s action.
That earlier ruling, by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, claimed the president’s move was illegal and said courts could review presidential decisions in this case. But the appeals court strongly disagreed.
In an unsigned order, the judges said the law gives the president “broad authority” to exclude federal workers from union protections when national security is involved.
They noted that the Secretary of State sits on the National Security Council and that the State Department’s core mission is US security, meaning the president’s judgment holds sway.
“When a statutory delegation invokes the president’s discretion in exercising core Article II responsibilities, there is little for a court to review,” the panel wrote.
The stay issued by the court means Trump’s order can now take effect while the case continues to work its way through lower courts.
The ruling is a major setback for the American Foreign Service Association, which vowed to keep fighting.
“The court’s decision to stay our preliminary injunction is a blow, not just to AFSA, but to more than 50 years of work defending the rights of America’s career diplomats and upholding transparency and due process in government,” AFSA President Tom Yazdgerdi said.
Trump’s executive order, issued on March 27, identified dozens of agencies that he determined have a national security role, including the State Department, Treasury, Justice Department, FCC, VA, and even the National Science Foundation, and removed their employees from collective bargaining.
The order has already sparked multiple legal challenges. The current case was brought by AFSA, which accused the administration of political retaliation after its members opposed Trump’s plans to trim certain USAID and State Department activities.
As part of its case, AFSA pointed to a fact sheet released alongside the executive order, which said that federal unions had “declared war on President Trump’s agenda.”
The White House stood firm. “Protecting America’s national security is a core constitutional duty, and President Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests,” a spokesperson told the Times.
During earlier hearings, Friedman had noted that a president does not need to explain his decision-making in such matters, but argued that because Trump had provided an explanation, it weakened the legal justification. The appeals court declined to address that issue in its latest ruling.
It comes just more than a week after another massive victory for the president in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last week, the court granted the Trump administration’s motion to stay a ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, allowing him to maintain the deployment of the California National Guard in Los Angeles.
Trump expressed gratitude to that appeals court for its decision.
“The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page. “If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!”
Breyer claimed Trump had acted unconstitutionally in federalizing elements of the California National Guard to help protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as federal property, citing the 10th Amendment.
