A U.S. appeals court rejected a request from unions to prevent President Donald Trump’s administration from removing the ability of hundreds of thousands of federal employees to engage in union negotiations with U.S. agencies. This decision reversed a ruling made by a lower court.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco stated that Trump’s 2025 order, which eliminates collective bargaining rights for many government workers, is valid and grounded in national security concerns,
The unions contended that Trump issued the order as retaliation for their challenges to various administration policies, which they claimed violated their free-speech rights. However, the 9th Circuit court stated that Trump would have taken the same action regardless of whether he intended to punish the unions.
Trump’s order “expresses that the President’s primary – if not only – concern with union activity was its interference with national security,” Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump appointee, wrote for the court.
Eliminating collective bargaining would enable agencies to more easily alter working conditions, as well as fire or discipline employees. Additionally, it could prevent unions from legally challenging initiatives from the Trump administration.
The panel overturned a ruling made last year by U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco, which had temporarily blocked Trump’s order. The 9th Circuit Court had paused Donato’s ruling in August while awaiting the outcome of the appeal. Similarly, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., had paused a related ruling in May that also blocked Trump’s order.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, in a statement, called the decision “a great legal victory for President Trump and his ability to properly manage the federal government.”
