Washington: A federal judge has dealt a blow to President Donald Trump’s effort to overhaul the US bureaucracy, including by making it easier to fire government workers.
US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson says in a ruling issued on Saturday that key provisions of three executive orders Trump signed in May “undermine federal employees’ right to bargain collectively” as protected by federal law.
She adds in her decision that “the President must be deemed to have exceeded his authority in issuing them.”
Organisations representing federal workers had sued over the executive orders and applauded the judge’s ruling.
Trump’s executive orders covered federal employee collective bargaining rights, grievance procedures and official time use.
The White House had no immediate comment on the judge’s ruling. (AP)
