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Top Three News Stories:

1. Federal Judge Halts Trump Administration’s Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers

A U.S. district judge in San Francisco issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on May 10 that blocks the White House from proceeding with sweeping workforce cuts ordered in February.  The court found the plaintiffs—AFGE, other unions, and local governments—are likely to succeed in arguing that large-scale reorganization requires congressional approval, and that thousands of employees already separated could face irreparable harm.  The Justice Department has filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit, but for now agencies must freeze all layoff actions tied to the disputed executive order. Washington Post

Legal Insight:

From a legal standpoint, the ruling underscores that agencies cannot rely solely on executive authority to abolish positions en masse; Title 5 reduction-in-force procedures and appropriations riders still control.  Employees who have already received notices—or who were removed—should preserve all correspondence and deadlines, because the injunction may reopen avenues for MSPB appeals or class claims for back pay.  Agencies must also reassess any pending RIF plans or “deferred-resignation” offers or risk later findings of prohibited personnel practices.  Practitioners should watch the May 22 hearing, where the court could convert the TRO into a preliminary injunction lasting through the merits phase.

2. Federal Employee Unions Scramble to Survive Amid Trump’s Bid to Curb Collective Bargaining

In a May 11 Weekend Edition Sunday report, NPR detailed how recent executive actions stripping bargaining rights from policy-influencing positions have gutted union dues collections and forced the American Federation of Government Employees and other labor groups to cut staff and services.  Union leaders warn that removing dues-withholding and official-time provisions threatens their ability to represent hundreds of thousands of members just as agencies press ahead with job cuts and relocations.  The story traces the stakes back to the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and notes that unions are racing to move members to direct-pay options while federal courts—and potentially Congress—decide the fate of the new rules.  NPR

Legal Insight:

Legally, the executive orders face two principal challenges: whether they exceed the President’s management rights under 5 U.S.C. § 7106 and whether they violate employees’ First Amendment freedom of association.  Until the courts rule, employees who lose automatic dues withholding must proactively arrange ACH or credit-card payments if they want continued representation during grievances, MSPB appeals, or OSC filings.  Agencies should beware of declaring any contract provisions “null” without first bargaining or obtaining FLRA guidance; unilateral implementation risks unfair-labor-practice findings and make-whole remedies.  For practitioners, the tactical question is whether to seek expedited FLRA arbitration or to piggy-back on the broader constitutional litigation for injunctive relief.  

3. FEMA Scales Back In-Person Disaster Training Weeks Before Hurricane Season

Reuters reported on May 11 that FEMA has sharply reduced its in-person emergency-management courses, citing Trump-era directives to shrink the agency’s footprint and travel budgets.  Roughly one-third of FEMA’s workforce has already departed, and many hurricane-preparedness workshops for state and local officials have been shifted online or cancelled outright.  Emergency-management experts and the National Emergency Management Association warn the move erodes crucial relationships and hands-on skills just as forecasters predict an active Atlantic season with 17 named storms.  Reuters

Legal Insight:

Mindful Moment of the Day: 

Single-Task Savoring 

Pick one routine duty today—scanning a PDF, updating a spreadsheet—and treat it as the only job you will ever perform. Notice the cursor glide, the rhythm of keystrokes, the moment data lines up perfectly. Immersing in the sensory texture of a humble task rewires the brain for deep work, a scarce commodity in notification-driven environments. Attorneys who adopt periodic savoring report greater creative insight when they later tackle high-stakes analysis; the mind, rested from scattered attention, regains its analytic edge.