Air traffic controllers and the national union that represents them filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Trump administration stating that the government shutdown has and continues to have a “devastating effect” on their lives.
Because air traffic controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are designated as “excepted” employees, they are required to continue working during the shutdown without pay. The lawsuit argues that not paying them but requiring them to work during the shutdown without any procedure to challenge the deprivation is a violation of their Fifth Amendment Due Process rights.
The controllers are not the first to sue the Trump administration over the shutdown since it began on December 22. he National Treasury Employees Union filed on Thursday, and the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees filed a complaint on December 31 on behalf of two Bureau of Prisons employees, alleging that more than 400,000 federal employees are being forced to work without pay during the shutdown.
