Maryland, 22 other attorneys general file brief supporting federal unions against Trump cuts

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
September 2, 2025

Maryland joined 21 states and the District of Columbia on a brief in support of federal labor unions that are suing to block President Donald Trump’s executive order canceling collective bargaining agreements with dozens of federal offices.

The friend-of-the-court brief, filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, argues that Trump’s order violates the affected workers’ First Amendment rights and retaliates against them for not adhering with the president’s agenda.

“Federal workers constitute one in ten Maryland jobs, serving our communities in roles such as nurses at veterans’ hospitals, environmental scientists, agricultural inspectors, and administrative support specialists,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement Tuesday.

“These dedicated public servants deserve a voice in the workplace,” Brown’s statement said. “Without the right to collectively bargain, they risk losing the protections, fair wages, and safe working conditions they need to support their families and serve the public effectively.”

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 27 that said labor agreements were being canceled “to enhance the national security.” The agencies targeted ranged from the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security to the Bureau of Land Management and the Federal Communications Commission, according to guidance at the time from the Office of Personnel Management.

Two more agencies cancel union contracts, as FEMA, USCIS end collective bargaining

Trump expanded that list on Thursday with another executive order that added NASA, the commissioner of patents in the Patent and Trademark Office, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Agency for Global Media — which oversees Voice of America — among other agencies.

“The agencies and agency subdivisions set forth in … this order are hereby determined to have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work,” Trump’s order said.

The American Federation of Government Employees — one of six federal unions that had sued to block Trump’s original executive order — said after Thursday’s order that it will continue to fight.

“AFGE is preparing an immediate response and will continue to fight relentlessly to protect the rights of our members, federal employees and their union,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge James Donato issued a preliminary injunction June 24 that blocked implementation of Trump’s order, noting that a White House fact sheet published with the original order called out “hostile Federal unions” that “have declared war on President Trump’s agenda” and are “‘fighting back’ against Trump.”

But the 9th Circuit lifted that injunction, on Aug. 1, saying that Trump’s order “on its face … does not express any retaliatory animus. Instead, it conveys the President’s determination that the excluded agencies have primary functions implicating national security.”

Since then, federal agencies have moved swiftly to end labor agreements with their workers, reclaiming office space from the unions and canceling arbitration and grievance hearings, among other actions.

The Center for American Progress estimates more than 1 million federal workers, representing about 81% of federal labor union membership, are affected by Trump’s executive order

Besides Maryland, other jurisdictions signed on to the brief include the District of Columbia and the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.