Union Sues US Treasury to Prevent Government Shutdown

BOSTON — A union of federal employees petitioned a federal court Monday seeking to prevent the government from shutting down if the U.S. budget reaches its debt limit.

The petition from the National Association of Government Employees says President Joe Biden should be banned by court order from declining to borrow more money to pay the government’s bills.

The government is expected to run out of money on June 1 if it does not raise its debt limit and borrow more money.

Biden and Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss a possible resolution.

Although the Justice Department has not yet responded to the lawsuit, it raises a constitutional question of whether the union has a right to sue a president by challenging a policy on a “political question.”

The political question doctrine limits the ability of the federal courts to hear constitutional questions even when the persons suing could suffer damages, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The National Association of Government Employees represents about 75,000 federal workers, many of whom could lose part of their pay during a government shutdown.

Article III of the Constitution says “no justiciable ‘controversy’ exists when parties seek adjudication of a political question.”

Supreme Court interpretations of Article III say the term political question expresses the principle that some policy issues are entrusted solely to other branches of government or beyond the competence of courts to review. As a result, courts are not authorized to rule on them.

Republicans generally oppose increasing the debt limit while Democrats say the consequences of not increasing it are much worse for the nation’s economy.

The Republicans’ leading proposal would severely limit the government’s discretionary spending. In an effort to reduce inflation, it would cap fiscal 2024 discretionary spending at 2022 levels and limit discretionary spending increases to 1% per year through 2033. 

Democrats say low and middle-income persons would be seriously hurt by the Republican bill.

“We’ve already detailed how their Default on America Act would cut 81,000 jobs from the [Veterans Administration], reduce outpatient visits by 30 million and increase the disability claims backlog by an estimated 134 thousand,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing last week. “Sadly, their bill also makes defunding law enforcement one of the most high-profile legislative actions of their new majority.”

The lawsuit filed in Boston asks U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to declare the federal debt limit statute “unconstitutional and of no force.” The statute sets a limit on the amount of debt that can be incurred by the U.S. Treasury, thereby limiting how much money the federal government may pay on the debt it already borrowed.

A ruling for the National Association of Government Employees could free the government to borrow more money.

“While not challenging here in principle the controversial proposition that Congress can limit the indebtedness of the United States, plaintiff asserts that Congress may not do so without at least setting the order and priority of payments once that limit is reached, instead of leaving it to the president to do so,” the union’s lawsuit says.

Most of the National Association of Government Employees’ members can be found in the U.S. military, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce.

“This litigation is both an effort to protect our members from illegal furloughs and to correct an unconstitutional statute that frequently creates uncertainty and anxiety for millions of Americans,” the union’s president, David J. Holway, said in a statement.

The lawsuit claims the Supreme Court set a precedent for federal courts to intervene in government budget disputes when it struck down a presidential line-item spending veto in the 1995 decision of Clinton v. New York. 

“The debt ceiling has become a political football for certain members of Congress,” Holway said. “If Congress will not raise the debt limit as it has nearly 80 times before without condition, it leaves no constitutional choice for the president.”

The case is National Association of Government Employees Inc. v. Yellen et al., case number 1:23-cv-11001, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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