Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices.
Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a lawsuit challenging it.
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23 minutes ago
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Trump once opened the door to the LGBTQ+ community. Now activists say he's their top threat
WASHINGTON (AP) — When he first ran for office, Donald Trump appeared to be a new kind of Republican when it came to gay rights. Years earlier, he overturned the rules of his own Miss Universe pageant to allow a transgender contestant to compete. He said Caitlyn Jenner could use any bathroom at Trump Tower that she wanted. And he was the first president to name an openly gay person to a Cabinet-level position. But since returning to office this year, Trump has engaged in what activists say is an unprecedented assault on the LGBTQ+ community. The threat from the White House contrasts with World Pride celebrations taking place just blocks away in Washington, including a parade and rally this weekend. 'We are in the darkest period right now since the height of the AIDS crisis,' said Kevin Jennings, who leads Lambda Legal, a longtime advocacy organization. 'I am deeply concerned that we're going to see it all be taken away in the next four years.' Trump's defenders insist the president has not acted in a discriminatory way, and they point to public polling that shows widespread support for policies like restrictions on transgender athletes. 'He's working to establish common sense once again,' said Ed Williams, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBT conservatives. Harrison Fields, the principal deputy press secretary at the White House, said, 'the overall MAGA movement is a big tent welcome for all and home to a large swath of the American people.' 'The president continues to foster a national pride that should be celebrated daily, and he is honored to serve all Americans,' Fields said. Presidential actions were widely expected Trump made anti-transgender attacks a central plank of his campaign reelection message as he called on Congress to pass a bill stating there are 'only two genders' and pledged to ban hormonal and surgical intervention for transgender minors. He signed an executive order doing so in January. His rally speeches featured a spoof video mocking transgender people and their place in the U.S. military. Trump has since banned them outright from serving. And although June is recognized nationally as Pride month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week that Trump has 'no plans for a proclamation.' 'I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed,' she added, making no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity. Williams described Pride activities as a progressive catch-all rather than a civil rights campaign. 'If you're not in the mood to protest or resist the Trump administration,' he said, 'Pride is not for you.' Trump declined to issue Pride Month proclamations in his first term, but did recognize the celebration in 2019 as he publicized a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality headed by Richard Grenell, then the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and the highest-profile openly gay person in the administration. (Grenell now serves as envoy for special missions.) 'As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation,' Trump posted on social media. Times have changed where Trump is concerned This time, there is no celebrating. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which Trump named himself chairman of after firing members of the board of trustees, canceled a week's worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights for this summer's World Pride festival in Washington, D.C., at one of the nation's premier cultural institutions. Trump, who indicated when he took up the position that he would be dictating programming, had specifically said he would end events featuring performers in drag. The exterior lights that once lit the venue on the Potomac River in the colors of the rainbow were quickly replaced with red, white and blue. Multiple artists and producers involved in the center's Tapestry of Pride schedule, which had been planned for June 5 to 8, told The Associated Press that their events had been quietly canceled or moved to other venues. Inside the White House, there's little second-guessing about the president's stances. Trump aides have pointed to their decision to seize on culture wars surrounding transgender rights during the 2024 campaign as key to their win. They poured money into ads aimed at young men — especially young Hispanic men — attacking Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for supporting 'taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners,' including one spot aired during football games. 'Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,' the narrator said. Jennings flatly rejected assertions that the administration hasn't been discriminatory. 'Are you kidding me? You're throwing trans people out of the military. That's example No. 1.' He points to the cancellation of scientific grants and funding for HIV/AIDS organizations, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's 'petty and mean' order to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, which commemorates the gay rights activist and Navy veteran. Jennings also said it doesn't help that Trump has appointed openly gay men like Grenell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to high-profile positions: 'I would call it window dressing.' Less tolerance for the issues as time passes Craig Konnoth, a University of Virginia professor of civil rights, compared the U.S.' trajectory to that of Russia, which has seen a crackdown on gay and lesbian rights after a long stretch of more progressive policies. In 2023, Russia's Supreme Court effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism. Williams said Trump has made the Republican Party more accepting of gay people. First lady Melania Trump, he noted, has hosted fundraisers for his organization. 'On the whole, we think he's the best president ever for our community. He's managed to support us in ways that we have never been supported by any administration,' Williams said. 'We are vastly accepted within our party now.' Trump's approach to LGBTQ+ rights comes amid a broader shift among Republicans, who have grown less tolerant in recent years. While overall support for same-sex marriage has been stable, according to Gallup, the percentage of Republicans who think marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized as valid with the same rights as traditional marriage dropped to 41% this year. That's the lowest point since 2016, a year after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, and a substantial decline from a high of 55% in 2021. There's been a similar drop in the share of Republicans who say that gay and lesbian relations are morally acceptable, which has dropped from 56% in 2022 to 38% this year. Democrats, meanwhile, continue to overwhelmingly support same-sex marriage and say that same-sex relations are morally acceptable. An AP-NORC poll from May also found that Trump's approach to handling transgender issues has been a point of relative strength for the president. About half (52%) of U.S. adults said they approve of how he's handling transgender issues — a figure higher than his overall job approval (41%). Douglas Page, who studies politics and gender at Gettysburg College, said that 'trans rights are less popular than gay rights, with a minority of Republicans in favor of trans rights. This provides incentives for Republicans to speak to the conservative side of that issue.' 'Gay people are less controversial to Republicans compared to trans people,' he said in an email, 'so gay appointees like Secretary Bessent probably won't ruffle many feathers.' ___ Colvin reported from New York. Linley Sanders and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pam Bondi Hit With Formal Demand to Answer Musk's Claim About Trump and Epstein
House Democrats have urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to respond to a bombshell claim from Elon Musk that Donald Trump is named in the so-called 'Epstein files.' Reps. Stephen Lynch and Robert Garcia, who serve on key congressional oversight panels, sent a letter to Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel obtained by Axios, demanding that they 'immediately clarify whether this allegation is true.' The lawmakers want Bondi and Patel to produce a detailed timeline of the Department of Justice's handling of the Epstein files and to explain why there have been no new disclosures since February, according to the letter. Trump 'is in the Epstein files,' billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk wrote in a post on X Thursday, alleging that 'that is the real reason they have not been made public.' Musk signed the post off by writing: 'Have a nice day, DJT!' Musk added in a follow-up post: 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.' He was referring to files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced late financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide while in federal custody in New York City in August 2019 as he awaited trial on new sex trafficking charges. Officials in the first Trump administration determined that Epstein's death was a suicide, but conspiracy theories that he was killed to shield high-profile individuals including Trump, Britain's Prince Andrew, and former President Bill Clinton have proliferated nonetheless. The Trump administration in February declassified and released files related to Epstein, but they were highly redacted and did not offer major revelations. The FBI hasn't indicated when more files will be released. Lynch and Garcia want answers about who was involved in the review and redaction process. The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Justice for comment. 'We write with profound alarm at allegations that files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have not been declassified and released to the American public because they personally implicate President Trump,' the lawmakers wrote in a three-page letter. 'Musk, one of the President's closest and most influential advisors, alleges that the President may be described in additional files related to this investigation. This allegation implies that the President may be involved in determining which files should be released and whether files will be withheld from the public if he personally chooses to withhold them,' the House Democrats said. Giving a June 20 deadline, the House Democrats asked Bondi and Patel to provide a timeline timeline for the declassification and public release of all remaining files; to describe why the DOJ hasn't released additional files since February; to describe Trump's role in reviewing documents pertaining to the investigation and prosecutions of convicted sex offenders Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as his role in determining DOJ's ability to declassify and make public these documents. They also demanded Bondi and Patel provide a list of all personnel whose approval is required to facilitate the declassification and public release of the documents, and to explain why the previously released files 'contained significant redactions.' In a statement to Axios, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields dismissed the letter as 'another baseless stunt that bears no weight in fact or reality.' 'These are the same left-wing lunatics who neglected their oversight duties regarding the Biden administration's lawless actions and concocted hoax after hoax on President Trump during his first term. No one takes them or their petty letters seriously,' said Fields. Musk pushed the explosive claim amid an epic public feud with the president, which centers on the Trump-backed 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.' Musk has criticized the spending package, describing it as fiscally reckless and a 'disgusting abomination.' He's said the bill would undermine his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by adding trillions to the U.S. budget deficit. But Trump claimed Thursday that Musk was really upset about the effect the bill will have on his electric vehicle company, Tesla. In their rift Thursday, Musk also suggested Trump be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance, and asked his 220 million followers in a poll on X whether he should create ' a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?' Trump has said he's 'very disappointed' in Musk and suggested he has 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.' Reports that pair could be set to make amends as soon as Friday with a Trump team-scheduled call with Musk to broker peace were quickly rebuffed by the president, who said Musk had 'lost his mind' and had no plans to talk to him. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: 'This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' because it does not include the policies he wanted.'
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The case a federal judge called 'Kafkaesque'
Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. Have you ever had a word stuck in your head? I can't seem to shake this one from a court decision this week: entombed. The haunting term came from the chief federal trial judge in Washington, D.C., James Boasberg. He's presiding over a lawsuit from scores of Venezuelan immigrants held in a Salvadoran prison known for human rights abuses, called the Center for Terrorism Confinement, or CECOT for short. The judge wrote a 69-page opinion, published Wednesday, explaining why the Trump administration must work to let the immigrants challenge their rushed renditions to that prison back in March. Boasberg opened with a nod to Franz Kafka's 'The Trial.' The Obama appointee compared the ordeal to that of Kafka's protagonist, Josef K., whose absurd legal saga is a helpful shorthand to draw attention to farcical affairs. While the term Kafkaesque can seem dramatic, it applies here. After all, U.S. agents hustled the men out of the country without due process, backed by the purported authority of an 18th-century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, whose factual and legal propriety has been called into grave doubt not only by judges around the country but by U.S. intelligence agencies. On the latter front, a declassified memo released last month showed that officials had rejected President Donald Trump's basis for citing the act. He had claimed the Venezuelan government controlled the gang to which these men allegedly belonged. But experts in Trump's own government disagreed. So, Trump's use of the law was bogus from the start. On top of that, at a hurried hearing in March, Boasberg had ordered the U.S. to keep custody of the men — an order the government ignored, and that disobedience is the subject of separate contempt litigation that the administration is appealing. But that foundational sham and defiance wasn't the issue in Boasberg's ruling this week. His narrower, modest point was that the men never got due process to challenge their removals under the act. 'Perhaps the President lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. Perhaps, moreover, [government] Defendants are correct that Plaintiffs are gang members,' the judge wrote, adding: 'But — and this is the critical point — there is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT Plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the Government's say-so.' Our word-of-the-week then emerged when the jurist observed that 'significant evidence has come to light indicating that many of those currently entombed in CECOT have no connection to the gang and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.' Entombed in CECOT. Now what? Boasberg said the government must facilitate the plaintiffs' ability to challenge their removals. But he left it to the government to decide how to make that happen. 'Exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings,' the judge wrote, giving the administration a week to come up with a plan. We'll be eagerly awaiting the official response — or, the latest emergency Supreme Court appeal from a judge's effort to bring the administration into legal compliance. At any rate, it doesn't seem like anyone is going anywhere anytime soon, even if Boasberg's order stays on track, which is not a sure bet. Until then: entombed. Have any questions or comments for me? Please submit them on this form for a chance to be featured in the Deadline: Legal blog and newsletter. This article was originally published on
