D.C. Circuit Judges Hear Case on NTEU Challenge of DOGE
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument Wednesday on the National Treasury Employees Union’s pursuit of an emergency stay of President Donald Trump's executive order slashing staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The challenge is one of several that NTEU, which represents FCC employees, has against recent efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration (see 2503310047).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an injunction March 28 blocking the administration from slashing agency staff and otherwise shutting down the CFPB.
The case drew a potentially Trump-friendly panel, with two judges he named to the bench, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao. The third judge, Cornelia Pillard, was appointed by President Barack Obama. Both sides faced an equal number of questions during more than 90 minutes of oral argument Wednesday.
“The district court’s sweeping programmatic injunction goes far beyond any relief that has been justified based on the purported violations the court identified,” said Eric McArthur, deputy assistant attorney general. The court “improperly intrudes on the executive’s Article II authority [under the Constitution] to manage its own internal affairs.”
Representing the union, Gupta Wessler's Jennifer Bennett called the proceeding “an extraordinary case.” The district court found, based on hundreds of CFPB documents and the testimony of an agency witness, “that the defendants had tried to dismantle the agency and that, if given the opportunity, they were ready and willing and wanted to do so again,” she said. “The agency would be wiped out in 30 days.”