One of President Bush's first acts as president was the issuance of an executive order on Feb. 17 prohibiting project labor agreements on federally funded construction projects.

Not so fast, said U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan. In a Nov. 7 ruling, he said Bush's Executive Order "in its entirety is preempted" by the National Labor Relations Act. The judge ruled that Bush overstepped his authority, and permanently halted the enforcement of the executive order.

"This is a great and sweeping victory. The administration was attacking the unions and our way of doing business," said AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Edward Sullivan.

Many local and state governments make it a policy to use union-only project labor agreements to build taxpayer-funded projects. Those that do regard the agreements as a good business practice, assuring them a ready supply of skilled workers able to bring in projects on-time and on-budget.

Predictably, the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors said the ruling "is bad for the country" and called on the Justice Department to appeal Sullivan's decision.

The Wall Street Journal reported that building trade unions hope that their support of President Bush's push to drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge will sway the president to hold off on appealing the ruling. The ABC said unions are overestimating their clout. Stay tuned.