Courtney Rozen | Bloomberg Law | Jan. 21, 2025, 6:30 AM CST
- Union represents workers from IRS, 35 other agencies.
- Lawsuit says Trump doesn’t have power to end job safeguards.
The National Treasury Employees Union launched a legal attack against President Donald Trump‘s “Schedule F” executive order, a directive that makes it easier for his administration to fire career employees who work across administrations.
Trump’s order is “contrary to congressional intent,” NTEU said in a complaint filed late Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The union pointed to a part of civil service law that empowers the president to remove job protections for career agency staff if “conditions of good administration warrant,” adding that the order doesn’t meet that requirement.
It’s the latest lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s efforts to cull the federal workforce. On Monday, unions and other groups filed complaints in federal court seeking to end the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE is an effort to cut government spending that will be led by billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk.
“This order is about administering political loyalty tests to everyday employees in the federal workforce who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and serve their country,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a statement.
NTEU represents employees in 37 federal agencies and offices, including staff at the IRS and Department of Health and Human Services.
The union also accused Trump of violating the Administrative Procedure Act when he ignored a Biden administration rule that added new requirements for cabinet secretaries who want to remove job protections for civil servants.
The APA requires federal departments to take specific steps to undo the previous administration’s regulations, or face judicial review. That includes giving outside groups the opportunity to weigh in on changes, a process that often takes months. It took the Biden administration eight months to complete the steps.
NTEU challenged Trump’s first Schedule F executive order in 2020. Former President Joe Biden took office and signed an executive order ending Schedule F before a judge could evaluate the NTEU’s argument against it.
The case is NTEU v. Trump, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00170, complaint filed 1/20/25.
