The suit was brought by federal unions seeking to preserve union dues and bargaining power.
WASHINGTON—A federal judge on Feb. 20 declined to block for now downsizing efforts by the Trump administration, including mass firings and buyout programs.
“Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent—no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his ruling.
Unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers had filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and the heads of several government agencies, saying they were overstepping the executive branch’s authority.
The unions also said slashing the size of federal agencies would result in “irreparable harm” because of lower union dues revenue and a loss in bargaining power.
They asked the court to declare the federal program unlawful and to halt the administration from implementing another similar program.
The buyout, or deferred resignation, offer, which ended on Feb. 12, was offered to more than 2 million government employees by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to hasten Trump’s plan to shrink the federal workforce.
OPM offered workers full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 in exchange for voluntary resignation and warned that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.”
