Federal unions expand lawsuit challenging Schedule Policy/Career as unconstitutional

The American Federation of Government Employees, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Democracy Forward filed an expanded Second Amended Complaint on March 4, 2026 in federal district court, broadening their legal challenge to target the entire Schedule Policy/Career framework: the underlying EO 14171, OPM's February 2026 final rule, and the reclassification effort. The lawsuit argued that the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act by stripping federal employees of civil service protections without congressional authorization and that the executive order exceeded the president's constitutional authority. An earlier AFGE-AFSCME complaint filed shortly after Trump's January 2025 executive order had already secured a court order blocking the administration from attacking union contracts.