One of the largest federal labor unions in the nation is asking a federal judge to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that would strip hundreds of thousands of workers of the right to collectively bargain with their agency employers in what it calls an act of “political retribution” by the president.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the nation’s second largest federal union, on Monday filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., claiming that the president violated federal law in his order, which claims that more than a dozen agencies — including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Bureau of Land Management — were exempt from labor law requirements because they were determined to have a “primary function” in “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”

The executive order, signed by President Trump on Thursday, led to a flurry of lawsuits from federal agencies seeking to terminate existing contracts with their union employees.

According to the complaint, the order is a thinly-veiled attempt to continue the administration’s effort to gut the federal workforce by making it easier for the government to terminate employees. NTEU also asserts that Trump is seeking revenge for the union filing lawsuits that have stymied his efforts at mass firings and led to judges ordering thousands of employees who were unlawfully fired to be reinstated, as evidenced by the White House Fact Sheet on the order.

From the filing:

The same White House Fact Sheet reveals the secondary motivation for the Executive Order: political retribution. In justifying the Executive Order, the Fact Sheet states that “[c]ertain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda.” It continues, “[t]he largest Federal union describes itself as ‘fighting back’ against Trump. It is widely filing grievances to block Trump policies.” It then adds that this union has “filed 70 national and local grievances over President Trump’s policies since the inauguration — an average of over one a day.”

As a result of the order, the heads of those agencies are required to stop payroll deductions for employees that go toward union dues, which NTEU says accounts for more than half its revenue stream. The organization is responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements with federal employers, lobbying for laws and regulations that improve work environments for federal employees, and litigating on behalf of members.

While presidents have previously issued executive orders exempting certain offices within agencies that clearly perform security or intel work from collective bargaining laws, “no President has ever exempted an entire Cabinet-level agency — let alone multiple Cabinet-level agencies,” according to the suit, which claims the order would leave a full two-thirds of the federal workforce without unionization rights.

The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump‘s firings of approximately 5,900 probationary employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who have been booted since he took office in January.

In a stay issued on Wednesday by embattled MSPB member Cathy Harris, who has been fighting for her job herself, the board condemned the terminations as “planned eliminations” and violations of “personnel practice.”

“I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the agency engaged in a prohibited personnel practice,” Harris wrote in the MSPB order, noting how Biden ethics enforcer Hampton Dellinger — who is battling Trump’s Justice Department in federal court over his firing at the Office of Special Counsel — provided findings from an OSC investigation on the USDA removals this week that “reasonably” alleges and outlines personnel violations by the Trump administration.

Harris said the board believed there were “reasonable grounds” to stay the firings for 45 days while MSPB members continue to investigate, on account of there being so many people involved.

“Because there is a possibility that additional individuals, not specifically named in the agency’s response, may be affected by these probationary terminations, and given the assertions made in OSC’s initial stay request and the deference to which we afford OSC in the context of an initial stay request, I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the agency terminated the aforementioned probationary employees in violation of (civil service laws),” Harris explained.

A federal judge in Virginia has given the Trump administration and CIA the green light to pluck intelligence workers from offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — falling in line with the president’s axing of DEI policies — after originally agreeing to block their terminations last week with a temporary restraining order.

“Upon consideration of the filings, the record in this case, and oral argument, and for the reasons stated from the bench, it is hereby ordered that the administrative stay, entered on February 18, 2025, is vacated, with Plaintiffs’ deadline to respond to the deferred resignation program (“DRP”) and other employment options, made available to them under the CIA Director’s February 18, 2025 Memorandum, extended to at least to 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, March 3, 2025,” the Thursday order from U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga said. “Upon consideration of the filings, the record in this case, and oral argument, and for the reasons stated from the bench, it is hereby ordered that the administrative stay, entered on February 18, 2025, is vacated.”

Trenga ruled from the bench, saying he was siding with Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe to vacate the TRO based on current laws and regulations in place that give them the authority to fire intelligence employees at will, according to The New York Times.

The judge reportedly said that he would have agreed to keep the TRO in place for the 11 plaintiffs — all intelligence workers who were fired — if the argument would have been centered around basic fairness. The federal employees at risk of being fired work in offices and have roles tasked with overseeing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs across all intelligence agencies.

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Trenga, a George W. Bush appointee who presides over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, extended the deadline to Monday, March 3, for workers to resign under a deferred resignation program (“DRP”) and other employment options made available to them that allows them to be paid through Sept. 30. Employees are unable to challenge the firings or transfer to other agencies, per Trenga.

When the judge stayed the firings last week, he said that he was looking for “clarification” as to what agency regulations are involved in the case and the potential harm caused to the plaintiffs if they were to be terminated.

“Upon consideration of the filings, the record in this case, and oral argument, the Court concludes that it would benefit from Defendants’ response to the Motion, including clarification as to what Agency regulations are implicated in this case and the potential irreparable harm to Plaintiff John Does 1-6 and Jane Does 1-5,” Trenga’s Feb. 18 order said. “As the Court awaits full briefing and argument on the Motion, it exercises its powers under the All Writs Act and its inherent powers to manage its docket, to issue an administrative stay.”

After Thursday’s ruling came down, several intelligence workers — including those who filed the suit — gave Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Barghaan, who argued Trump’s case, a tongue lashing outside of court.

“You should be ashamed. You should really be ashamed of yourself,” one of the plaintiffs said, according to Politico. “That was really disgusting.”

When Trump issued his Jan. 20 orders ending DEI programs shortly after taking office, he condemned the initiatives and policies as being a corruption of “our institutions” and an attempt to replace “hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy,” according to one order. Three different directives were handed out targeting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility roles.

“The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government,” Trump said.

The DEI crusade has sparked multiple lawsuits and at least one other TRO in Maryland, where a federal judge blocked Trump from targeting federal agencies and contractors.

It’s unclear how many intelligence officers will be dismissed by the CIA, with as many as 51 being listed by lawyers for the employees. The plaintiffs suing the Trump administration include six men and five women who worked for the CIA and Director of National Intelligence. They claim in their complaint that they were unlawfully targeted and terminated due to “their assumed beliefs” about DEI policies without cause and notice.

“While intelligence officers lack recourse to the Merit System Protection Board, their own agencies classified internal regulations provide procedures for terminating officers,” the complaint says. “Officers’ basic rights include notice, the development of a record, to consult with counsel, and the opportunities to be heard and to appeal. Plaintiffs have received none of these rights.”

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., handed the Trump administration a win on Thursday by allowing the government to move forward with plans to fire vast number of federal employees.

In a 16-page memorandum opinion and order, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, determined he likely lacked the jurisdiction to hear the complaints of five labor unions.

The court reasoned — without technically getting to the merits of the case — that the lead plaintiff, the National Treasury Employees Union, “fails to establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits.”

Instead, the judge said the plaintiffs had to seek “administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority in the first instance, followed by judicial review in the courts of appeals.”

Georgia election workers defamed by Rudy Giuliani are now asking for him to be slapped with “severe sanctions” for allegedly violating several court orders and repeatedly flouting his discovery obligations.

On Thursday, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss filed a 22-page motion asking U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman to hold the former New York City mayor in civil contempt and harshly punish him to enforce compliance with recent court orders.

Those orders were issued by the court on Oct. 28, and Nov. 22. The first order directed the defendant to expediently reply to discovery requests and set deadlines for such replies. After the first deadline was missed, the court set another deadline for Giuliani to explain himself and avoid being held in contempt. Now, that second deadline has whooshed on by and the plaintiffs have lost their patience.

“Mr. Giuliani has not produced a single document in response to Plaintiffs’ discovery orders in this matter notwithstanding multiple orders from this Court requiring him to do so,” the latest motion reads.

Defamed election workers in Georgia are still brawling with Rudy Giuliani in court as they attempt to collect as much of their $148 million judgment as possible in property, including $2 million in “never paid” legal fees stemming from Giuliani’s ill-fated 2020 election lawyering for Donald Trump and his campaign.

Lead plaintiff Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss in August asked a federal court to order Giuliani to “turn over personal property in his possession” and to appoint them as “receivers with the power to take possession of, and sell, both real and personal property that Mr. Giuliani does not turn over,” like his New York apartment and his Florida condo.