A federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the collective bargaining agreement it previously held with the union representing its employees. The decision, which was filed in Connecticut’s federal district court on Tuesday, reinstitutes the agreement along with all amendments and memoranda of understanding that were previously in place under it.

The decision comes almost exactly a year after BOP Director William K. Marshall III announced the termination of the CBA. The American Federation of Government Employees’ Council of Prison Locals 33, which represents roughly 30,000 BOP employees, sued the bureau in response in November 2025.

In a release, AFGE Council 33 National President Brandy Moore White said the union looks forward to BOP complying with the order.

“Our members believe in the mission of this agency and in the protections the contract provides to advance that mission,” she said. “We are hopeful that management will work with us in a productive, good-faith partnership going forward to make our institutions safer for staff and the public alike.”

The agreement was terminated in the wake of a series of executive orders in the first year of the second Trump presidency that suspended collective bargaining across large swaths of the federal workforce on the basis that it hindered national security.

When Marshall announced the suspension of BOP’s contract, however, he said collective bargaining had become a “roadblock” and the contract was “an obstacle to progress instead of a partner in it.”

Attorneys for the union argued that the decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the First Amendment.

“Supreme Court precedent makes clear that, even if the executive order were lawful (a question not raised in this case), and even if BOP was not legally required to maintain a CBA with the union, the agency had to comply with the APA’s reasoned decisionmaking requirements in terminating the existing agreement,” attorneys for the union wrote in their initial complaint.

The case is one of several related to the termination of CBAs across the federal workforce. On Tuesday, the union representing Environmental Protection Agency employees filed a lawsuit on similar grounds. And in August, a judge ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate its CBA.

“I think beyond the impact of the relief for this particular AFGE unit, which is incredible for them and they are rightly celebrating this win, the decision may offer help for similarly situated unions in other cases,” said Suzanne Summerlin, a labor attorney and general counsel at Rise Up, a legal defense network for federal employees.

“I thought the decision was largely refreshing to see,” she continued. “It showed a district court that is not going to be pushed into channeling important cases that involve major constitutional and separation of power arguments to the [Federal Labor Relations Authority].”

“I am proud of our brothers and sisters in the Council of Prison Locals for fighting for their members’ rights and safety,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a release. “The court’s decision rightly restores a contract that protects our correctional officers and the public. The government’s termination of this contract was nothing more than an arbitrary attack on hardworking Americans, and the court saw it for exactly what it was.”

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