FROM THEIR LIPS TO GOD’S EARS

Without triggering a theological inquisition about  whether God has ears or even more fundamental questions, I want to share with you the latest Federal Court of Appeals decision blocking Trump’s Executive Order to kill unions. Oh, that other judges and justices read and adopt it. Until then, the reasoning of the court provides hope for those of us  dealing with “government by revenge.” You can read the full decision by clicking here, but below are the highlights.

First, the court said that the President could not use his authority to omit groups of federal employees from the collective bargaining law without providing specific arguments group by group as to how their work constitutes national security duties. Trump failed to do that and as the court said even his latest briefs “… do not contain a single word on the central question of how the preliminary injunction as to DoDEA imposes irreparable injury.”  (DoDEA is the DoD unit of elementary and secondary teachers at military installations around the world on whose behalf this case was brought.)

Second, the court rejected Trump’s “government by revenge” philosophy given that it has no connection to national security. ”Although the statute allows exclusions only for national security-related reasons, the district court found that the Executive Order likely did not rely on such reasons and instead imposed broad exemptions motivated by anti-union animus and policy goals that have nothing to do with the statutory criteria.”

Third, and my favorite reason for rejecting the Trump ‘s Executive Order is that the court found that there is a “public interest” in federal employees  having collective bargaining rights. Of course there is, e.g., unions push back against thousands of agency management decisions that harm the public but which are never going to be addressed by the media, courts or Congress; unions make the work more attractive and enjoyable lowering recruiting and retention; unions are in a position to reveal the many micro errors (waste, fraud and abuse) agency leaders make that those outside the workplace would never hear about; unions give Congress facts about agency operations that Congress would never otherwise hear about in budget or oversight efforts, etc.