On Friday, August 12, 2005, federal district judge Rosemary Collyer issued a surprising decision. She ruled that the Department of Homeland Security violated the law by setting up a churlish "collective bargaining system" for DHS employees. "Churlish" is my word, not Collyer's, but it makes it easier to capture the essence of a 57 page decision.

This post includes links to posts already out on the subject, links to the decision, and a bio of the judge.

Here is a brief round up of issues with links so you can find out more.

First, the Judge

Given the paper credentials of the judge, this is not the sort of decision one would expect. Her bio from her alma mater will explain what I mean. Management firm background, Republican appointee.

Following graduation from the University of Denver College of Law in 1977 where she was a member of the Law Review, Collyer went to work. She was an attorney with the law firm of Sherman & Howard in Denver before moving into government service.

She was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan to serve as Chairman of the Federal Mine and Safety Health Review Commission (1981-1984), followed by the appointment to serve as General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (1984-1989). Both presidential appointments required confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

In 1989, Collyer joined one of Washington, D.C.’s largest law firms, Crowell & Moring, LLP, where as a senior partner she provided counseling and litigation services to clients in the labor and employment field, before being appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States District Court in January 2003.

A hopeful sign that even conservative judges appointed by Bush can respect the law.

The Plaintiffs

There are many union plaintiffs. The lead plaintiffs include the National Treasury Employees Union, American Federation of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees (an affiliate of the IAM - Machinists Union), National Association of Agriculture Employees, and Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO (“Unions”). These organizationscollectively represent approximately 60,000 DHS employees.

They filed suit to challenge the regulations implementing DHS’s new HR System. They claimed it failed to comply with legal requirements and exceeded the authority of the Agencies.

The Decision

The decision, National Treasury Employees Union, et al.v. Michael Chertoff, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al., Civil Action No. 05-201 (RMC) was filed 08/12/2005, just one week after the August 5, 2005 24th Anniversary of the firing of the PATCO strikers. What a lovely surprise!

Briefly, the law that created the DHS severely limited collective bargaining but did not outlaw it, as Bush had hoped. The DHS tried to push the envelope and make collective bargaining a dead letter, despite the law. Collyer's decision found that the DHS practices violated the law.

The text of the decision is available here, an AFGE press release summarizing the decision is available here and the NTEU press release here.

What the Liberal / Union / Legal Blogosphere Is Saying

This is just a small sample.

From labor prof blog, Joe Hodnicki summarizes a news report of the case.

From Dispatch from the Trenches - News and Commentary on the Class War by a Worker on the Front Line, a reaction to the case:

Imagine. A Republican judge making a decision based on law instead of ideology. What a refreshing change! Look for Ms Collyer to be attacked by the Noise Machine as an ‘activist’ and a ‘tool of the most radical elements in our society’.

The trouble is, of course, that HS’ anti-union policies were supposed to be the ‘model’ for Bush’s revamping of government-wide employment rules—the wave of the future. He had intended use them to kill or cripple the Civil Service Employees’ Union, or at least make it moot.

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