Cities, States Prevail in Early Legal Clashes With Police Unions

Cities and states responding to nationwide protests sparked by George Floyd’s killing have begun trying to root out barriers to police accountability embedded in union contracts—and the first federal courts to weigh in are signaling the efforts could work.

Three courts in recent months have rejected initial police union challenges to measures that effectively invalidate or strip discipline rules in collective bargaining agreements.

The most significant could be in the District of Columbia, where U.S. District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the Fraternal Order of Police’s constitutional challenge to a law that eliminates all police discipline from collective bargaining. The judge ...