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WASHINGTON (CN) — Unions representing federal, state and local government employees sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, challenging the president’s efforts to roll back the rights of civil servants.
The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, targeting Trump’s executive order seeking to reclassify federal employees under “Schedule F.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement that the lawsuit was an effort to “protect the integrity” of the government.
“Together, we can stop the efforts to fire hundreds of thousands of experienced, hard-working Americans who have dedicated their careers to serving their country and prevent these career civil servants from being replaced with unqualified political flunkies loyal to the president, but not the law or Constitution,” Kelley said.
The order revives an identical effort Trump made in October 2020 and would strip long-standing protections afforded to civil servants and open them to be more easily fired.
Trump wrote in the Jan. 20 order that he wanted to prevent career federal employees from “resisting and undermining” his agenda, a hurdle he faced regularly during his first term in office.
“Any power they have is delegated by the president, and they must be accountable to the president, who is the only member of the executive branch, other than the vice president, elected and accountable to the American people,” Trump wrote.
Former President Joe Biden quickly revoked Trump’s first order upon taking office in January 2021, but Trump reversed that executive order immediately upon returning to the Oval Office.
According to a 2022 report by the Government Accountability Office investigating the potential impacts of a Schedule F reclassification, civil servants would no longer be entitled to notice of a removal, an opportunity to reply, representation by an attorney, and a written decision. They would also be unable to appeal the termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board or file a complaint under the terms of any collective bargaining agreement.
In the suit, the unions noted that the Office of Personnel Management upheld those protections as recently as May 2024, a regulation that Trump’s order would render ineffective.
The unions named Charles Ezell, acting director of the personnel agency, as a defendant in the case along with Trump.
“Plaintiffs — like all members of the public — are entitled to notice and the opportunity to be heard regarding the government’s changes to the regulations protecting the rights of career civil servants before any changes are made,” the unions wrote. “The Schedule F order instructs the OPM treat certain of those regulatory provisions as inoperative immediately without notice and comment in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.”
The unions requested U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, enjoin the order’s reversal of the regulations to allow for a notice and comment process.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is the latest federal lawsuit challenging other executive actions, including an order aiming to end birthright citizenship, ban transgender Americans from serving in the military, and an apparent freeze on all federal grants, among others.
The freeze on federal aid faced immediate backlash in the courts, as U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily froze the move Tuesday afternoon, just minutes before it was set to take effect. The order hit another hurdle in the U.S. District for Rhode Island, where a federal judge indicated he would issue a similar stay.
Trump has also taken sweeping actions to reshape the federal workforce, ordering an immediate return to in-person work, eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices and policies, and offering a mass “buyout” road map that pushes federal employees to resign and continue receiving pay through September.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward and counsel in the suit, said in a statement that Trump’s order was “clearly illegal.”
“In just the nine days since Trump took office, his administration has repeatedly demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law in service of its political objectives,” Perryman said. “Its efforts to politicize the non-partisan, independent federal employees who protect our national and domestic security, ensure our food and medications are safe, deliver essential services to people and communities everywhere, and much more is simply and clearly illegal.”
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