WASHINGTON — A federal judge in the District of Columbia has cleared the way for President Trump’s large-scale dismissal of federal employees.
Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court ruled on Thursday that he could not grant a request from unions to temporarily halt the layoffs. He determined that the unions’ complaint was essentially an employment dispute and should be handled through the established federal employment law process.
Judge Cooper noted that the president’s second term “has been defined by an onslaught of executive actions that have caused, some say by design, disruption and even chaos in widespread quarters of American society.”
However, Cooper, an Obama appointee, stated that judges are obligated to apply the law and precedent impartially, regardless of the parties involved or the potential consequences of their decisions for ordinary citizens.
The decision comes as thousands of federal employees have been terminated within the first month of Trump’s new term.
The administration successfully argued that the unions had not demonstrated the kind of immediate and irreparable harm necessary to justify an emergency order to prevent the layoffs.
The unions, representing a large number of federal employees, assert that Trump’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce conflict with Congress’s constitutional authority to determine the size and scope of government agencies through funding, as well as with existing laws governing such layoffs.
According to the president of the National Treasury Employees’ Union, Doreen Greenwald, Cooper’s ruling is only a temporary setback. She believes “federal employees will get their day in court to challenge the unlawful mass firings and other attacks on their jobs, their agencies, and their service to the country.”
This lawsuit is one of over 80 challenging Trump’s executive actions. Unions have also filed a separate lawsuit this week contesting mass firings in California.
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