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Judge says unions' challenge doesn't belong in court

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Ruling allows firings to go ahead for now

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Union president vows to continue legal challenges

(Adds background, details on ruling, union comment, in

paragraphs 2-10)

By Jack Queen and Daniel Wiessner

Feb 20 (Reuters) - The Trump administration can continue

its mass firings of federal employees for now, a federal judge

ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to

halt President Donald Trump's dramatic downsizing of the roughly

2.3 million-strong federal workforce.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C.,

said Trump's onslaught of executive actions in his first month

in office have caused "disruption and even chaos in widespread

quarters of American society." But he said he likely lacks the

power to decide whether the firing of tens of thousands of

government workers is lawful.

The unions are instead likely required to file complaints

with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which hears disputes

between federal agencies and unions that represent their

workers, Cooper said. Trump last week fired the Democratic chair

of the three-member panel, who has filed a lawsuit seeking to be

reinstated.

"Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal

issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent -

no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at

times, the consequences of their rulings for average people,"

the judge wrote.

Cooper declined to block the mass firings while the

litigation plays out, a win for the Trump administration as it

seeks to purge the federal workforce and slash what it deems

wasteful and fraudulent government spending.

The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice did not

immediately respond to requests for comment.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury

Employees Union, called the decision a temporary setback and

said the union would continue pursuing its legal challenge.

"There is no doubt that the administration's actions are an

illegal end-run on Congress, which has the sole power to create

and oversee federal agencies and their important missions,"

Greenwald said in a statement.

The treasury union and four others sued last week seeking to

block eight agencies from firing thousands of federal workers

and granting buyouts to employees who quit voluntarily. The

agencies include the Department of Defense, Department of Health

and Human Services, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and

Department of Veterans Affairs.

Cooper's ruling is the latest setback for unions that have

turned to courts to block Trump's sweeping and unprecedented

efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy. At least two judges

have ruled that unions lacked legal standing to challenge mass

firings and other Trump administration initiatives because they

could not show they were directly harmed by them.

DOGE ACTIONS

Trump tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a new

Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has swept

through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs and

dismantling federal programs since Trump became president last

month. Trump also ordered federal agencies to work closely with

DOGE to identify federal employees who could be laid off.

Terminations of workers across the federal government began

last week, primarily targeting recently hired employees still on

probation, at agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service,

Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the

General Services Administration, and others.

The unions said in their lawsuit that White House efforts,

including through DOGE, to shrink the federal workforce violate

separation of powers principles by undermining Congress'

authority to fund federal agencies.

The unions said that unless the court intervenes, they will

be irreparably harmed by lost revenue from dues-paying members

who were either fired or retired early to take buyouts.

Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for

bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due

process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily. The

probationary employees let go in last week's wave have fewer

legal protections.