A district judge hedged on whether he planned to grant a request from two federal employee unions to block President Donald Trump’s executive order nullifying their collective bargaining agreements, saying the case was more complicated than other union lawsuits where he issued injunctions.
Judge Paul L. Friedman pressed the government’s attorney Wednesday on the national security functions the US Patent and Trademark Office and the National Weather Service provide, which is the administration’s underlying justification for its August directive nullifying the agency unions’ contracts. He also questioned the unions’ counsel on the evidence for claims the unions would suffer irreparable ...