Appeals court lifts block on Trump executive order targeting federal worker unions

A federal appeals court has lifted a lower-court order that prevented the federal government from implementing President Donald Trump’s plan to end collective bargaining by workers at more than a dozen federal agencies. In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman appeared to have erred last month when he froze Trump’s executive order on the subject. The appeals court’s majority said there was insufficient evidence that the National Treasury Employees Union faced “irreparable harm” that would justify the preliminary injunction, Friedman said in his ruling.