Dept. of Defense v. American Federation of Government Employees (Union cancellation WDTX)

Under the FSLMRS framework, the court had to balance the Trump administration's broad executive authority over federal agencies and the workforce against Congress's statutory protections for federal union bargaining rights. The administration argued that presidential power to direct agency management and rescind policies from prior administrations allowed unilateral cancellation of the Biden-era CBAs, while the unions contended that the FSLMRS's explicit protections for collective bargaining agreements limited the president's authority to act unilaterally. The application of the statutory rule to these facts turned on whether the FSLMRS's provisions constituted a meaningful constraint on executive authority or whether the president's general power over agency operations and government-wide workforce directives superseded the bargaining protections Congress had established.