In a decision issued by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, on Friday, August 24, 2018, certain provisions of President Trump’s recently promulgated Executive Orders were found to be unlawful. The decision is available at Click here for Decision
In mid-June, 13 unions including the AFGE, NFFE, and NTEU sued President Trump and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in response to three executive orders issued by President Trump on May 25, 2018. In the suit, the unions assert President Trump exceeded his authority when issuing the executive orders. The unions sought an injunction from the Court to block implementation of the executive orders. The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and requested judicial review of President Trump’s three executive orders Nos. 13836, 13837, and 13839. The decision by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson stated in part:
“…while past precedents and pertinent statutory language indicate that the President has the authority to issue executive orders that carry the force of law with respect to federal labor relations, it is undisputed that no such orders can operate to eviscerate the right to bargain collectively as envisioned in the FSLMRS. In this Court’s view, the challenged provisions of the executive orders at issue have that cumulative effect. Stated succinctly, by enacting the FSLMRS, Congress undertook to guarantee federal employees the statutory right to engage in good-faith collective bargaining with agencies and executive branch officials, and the pronouncements that the FSLMRS makes are clearly based upon Congress’s stated opinion that “the right of employees” to “bargain collectively . . . safeguards the public interest, contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes” in regard to the “conditions of [federal] employment.””
The Court further stated that “both sides’ motions for summary judgment must be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART, and this Court will enjoin the President’s subordinates within the Executive Branch to disregard: sections 5(a), 5(e), and 6 of Executive Order 13,836; sections 3(a), 4(a), and 4(b) of Executive Order 13,837; and sections 3, 4(a), and 4(c) of Executive Order 13,839. In this Court’s view, these directives undermine federal employees’ right to bargain collectively as protected by the FSLMRS, and as a result, the President must be deemed to have exceeded his authority in issuing them.”
Furthermore, the Judge concluded that “there is no dispute that the principle mission of the FSLMRS is to protect the collective bargaining rights of federal workers, based on Congress’s clear and unequivocal finding that “labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest.” 5 U.S.C. § 7101(a). Congress did not intend for union challenges to the validity of executive orders that threaten such collective 119 bargaining rights to be funneled to the FLRA. Upon exercising its subject-matter jurisdiction over the ripe claims that the Unions bring here, this Court has concluded that many of the challenged provisions of the Orders at issue here effectively reduce the scope of the right to bargain collectively as Congress has crafted it, or impair the ability of agency officials to bargain in good faith as Congress has directed, and therefore cannot be sustained.”
“As a result, and as set forth in the accompanying Order, this Court will declare the following provisions invalid, and will enjoin the President’s subordinates from implementing or giving effect to: Executive Order 13,836 §§ 5(a), 5(e), 6; Executive Order 13,837 §§ 3(a), 4(a), 4(b); and Executive Order 13,839 §§ 3, 4(a), 4(c). What remains— Executive Order 13,836 § 5(c); Executive Order 13,837 §§ 2(j), 4(c); and Executive Order 13,839 §§ 2(b), 2(c), 4(b)(iii), 7—are the few challenged directives that have neither reduced the scope of protected collective bargaining rights nor hampered good faith bargaining, and, thus, cannot be said to conflict with the FSLMRS. Furthermore, given these conclusions, the parties’ various cross-motions for summary judgment are GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART.” (emphasis on the original.)