In today’s news and commentary, the Ninth Circuit allows Trump to dismantle certain government unions based on national security concerns; and the DOL set to focus enforcement on firms with “outsized market power.”
Yesterday, in AFGE v. Trump (9th Cir. 2026) the Ninth Circuit vacated a lower court order that enjoined President Trump’s Executive Order 14251, which excluded certain federal agencies from collective bargaining requirements under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS). The FSLMRS protects the rights of federal employees to unionize, but exempts certain agencies from coverage and authorizes the President to exclude other agencies from coverage based on “national security concerns.” The agencies excluded under EO 14251 include: the Departments of State, Justice, and Veterans Affairs, the EPA, and most of the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Treasury, and some subdivisions of the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
The plaintiffs-appellees were six unions representing ~800,000 federal civilian employees who sued the President, alleging that EO 14251 constituted First Amendment retaliation, among other claims. Regarding the merits of the case, a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges concluded that the plaintiffs “had not demonstrated a likelihood of success or serious questions on the merits of plaintiffs’ retaliation claim” because the President’s EO “discloses no retaliatory animus on its face...
Former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore is denying that he failed to report misconduct involving former assistant coach LaTroy Lewis. The Atlanta Falcons fired Lewis on Friday, Feb. 27, after new repo...