A federal district judge in the District of Columbia struck down key parts of three of President Trump’s executive orders that make it easier to fire federal employees deemed to be underperforming by their managers.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the ruling on Saturday, after several public-sector unions challenged some portions of the orders in court. The decision is a setback for Republican lawmakers who had sought, at the federal and state levels, to curb the power of labor unions representing government employees.

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