The federal appeals court for the District of Columbia
Circuit has set December 11 to hear oral arguments in
a union lawsuit against DoD’s national security personnel
system, a case that resulted in a lower court issuing
an injunction against the labor relations, adverse
action and appeals parts of the NSPS rules. DoD in the
meantime is continuing to phase in the unaffected parts
of NSPS—including changes in job classification and pay
for performance—with certain non-union employees. Both
sides recently filed briefs in the case, and the court
could issue a decision within a matter of months after
the oral arguments. The same court—although not the same
panel of judges that has been assigned to the DoD case–
earlier this year ruled against many of the same types
of planned changes at DHS, a ruling that the
administration chose not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Although the two cases involve two different laws,
the DHS case could set precedent for the DoD case on
appeal, as it did at the lower court level.
