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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.
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Shutdown RIF Threats Ease—for Now
Federal employees, take a breath. As of today, the White House appears to be stepping back from immediate plans for large-scale Reductions in Force (RIFs). That’s not a promise the...
OMB Memo Challenges Federal Back Pay Guarantees
A draft legal opinion from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly testing the foundation federal employees have relied on for years: that you’ll receive back pay afte...
Federal Shutdown: Furloughs Set to Expand as Carryover Funds Run Out
If you haven’t gotten a furlough notice yet, you might soon. Agencies that relied on leftover funding are exhausting it, and new rounds of furloughs are unfolding daily. More than ...
Understanding Telework as Reasonable Accommodation
For federal employees with medical conditions, few questions come up more often than this: Can telework be a reasonable accommodation? The answer is sometimes yes—but only when it ...
Hatch Act Complaints Surge After Shutdown: Why Reporting Still Matters
Within three days of the shutdown, nine separate Hatch Act complaints landed at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The allegations are stunning: agency websites and official...
AFGE Lawsuit Over Partisan Out-of-Office Messages: A First Amendment Test
Federal employees at the Department of Education recently discovered something shocking: their out-of-office messages—intended to explain the shutdown—had been rewritten to blame “...
Shutdown Update: What’s Really Happening — and When It Could End
As October 2025 unfolds, the federal shutdown shows no signs of quick resolution. Beneath the headlines, this is less a funding glitch and more a contest of leverage. Congress has ...
Partisan Out-of-Office Messages: Coerced Speech or Government Control?
Imagine discovering that your out-of-office email—sent from your official government account—was changed without your consent to blame one political party for the government shutdo...
Judge Blocks Trump Order Stripping Federal Union Rights
On September 30, 2025, federal employees won an important reprieve. Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for D.C. issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump admin...
When DOGE Policies Hit Home: Federal Workers Speak Out
When sweeping policies land in Washington, headlines often focus on politics, numbers, and high-level strategy. What’s harder to capture is what those shifts feel like in the cubic...
Pentagon’s Rare Generals’ Summit: What It Means for DoD Civilians
Next week, hundreds of generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisors have been ordered to gather at Quantico for an unusual in-person session with the Secretary of Defense. Whil...
Gratitude as a Legal Anchor in Uncertain Federal Times
If you are a federal employee right now, you don’t need a reminder that the landscape feels unstable. Shutdown deadlines, RIF whispers, and questions about pending cases can make e...
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