American Federation of Government Employees v. Trump
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A sign supporting government workers at a protest held in New York City, February 19, 2025
In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that was meant to launch what he called a “critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy.” The order required federal agencies to slash civil service jobs (via “reductions in force” or RIFs) and eliminate offices and programs, using government-shutdown levels as a guide—all without congressional approval. In response, a coalition of labor unions, nonprofit groups, and local governments—including NRDC—filed a lawsuit arguing that Trump’s executive order and the implementing agencies’ actions are unconstitutional, unlawful, and in violation of the separation of powers and the Administrative Procedure Act.
In May 2025, the federal district court granted a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction, effectively blocking defendant agencies from carrying out RIFs and reorganizations while the litigation worked its way through the courts. The litigation then made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in July 2025, granted a stay of the district court’s injunction.
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The Supreme Court’s stay order “express[ed] no view on the legality of any Agency RIF and Reorganization Plan produced or approved pursuant to the Executive Order and Memorandum.” The legality of those plans is the focus of continued litigation in the federal district court.
Most recently, in July 2026, the coalition filed a supplemental complaint and a new motion for a preliminary injunction that were focused on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is implementing a sweeping reorganization of the Forest Service and other agency components without congressional authorization. As the court filings explain, these cuts would curtail irreplaceable government research in forest health and soil science, decimate agency staffing levels, and undercut the Forest Service’s ability to provide essential services just as wildfire season approaches.
"The Forest Service’s move to substantially downsize its research capacity will harm NRDC’s advocacy: It will impede the completion of current research and the development of new research, particularly in the areas we focus most on, such as efficacy of forest management practices and wildfire; it will undermine the maintenance of key databases and monitoring programs as well as updates to important reports and datasets; and it puts at risk the quality of new forest management research through the loss of experiments that can demonstrate impacts on sufficiently long timescales, which newly started experiments will lack."
Dr. Dawn Woodard, staff scientist, Nature program, NRDC
Plaintiffs are the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO; Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO (SEIU); AFGE Local 1122; AFGE Local 1236; AFGE Local 2110; AFGE Local 3172; SEIU Local 1000; Alliance for Retired Americans; Alliance of Crop, Soil & Environmental Science Societies; American Public Health Association; American Geophysical Union; Center for Taxpayer Rights; the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks; Common Defense Civic Engagement; Main Street Alliance; National WIC Association; NRDC; Northeast Organic Farming Association; VoteVets Action Fund; Western Watersheds Project; the city and county of San Francisco; Santa Clara County, California; the city of Chicago; Prince George’s County, Maryland; the city of Baltimore; Harris County, Texas; and Martin Luther King Jr. County, Washington.
Defendants are President Trump; Office of Management and Budget; U.S. Office of Personnel Management; U.S. Department of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Commerce; U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Department of Labor; U.S. Department of State; U.S. Department of the Treasury; U.S. Department of Transportation; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; AmeriCorps and Peace Corps; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. General Services Administration; National Labor Relations Board; U.S. National Science Foundation; U.S. Small Business Administration; and Social Security Administration.
NRDC is represented by NRDC attorneys and by Altshuler Berzon LLP.
Case Documents
Plaintiffs' complaint, April 28, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) District court temporary restraining order, May 9, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Trump stay application to Supreme Court, May 15, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Amicus brief of former government officials, May 20, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) District court order granting preliminary injunction, May 22, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) District court discovery order, May 29, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Ninth Circuit order denying gov't stay motion, May 30, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Amicus brief of Constitutional Accountability Center, June 6, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Plaintiffs' response to stay application, June 9, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Supreme Court order granting stay, July 8, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) District court discovery order, July 18, 2025, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Plaintiffs' second supp complaint, July 1, 2026, AFGE v. Trump (PDF) Plaintiffs' PI motion re USDA reorg, July 1, 2026, AFGE v. Trump (PDF)RELATED CONTENT
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