A California state workers’ union is attempting to block Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent return-to-office mandate by leveraging a 56-year-old environmental law, arguing that forcing employees back to their desks will significantly damage the state’s climate goals.
Governor Newsom issued the directive in May, ordering state employees to work in person for a minimum of four days per week. In response, California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) sent letters on May 27 to more than 100 state agencies. The union claims that the administration failed to follow the procedures required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan in 1970, CEQA requires state and local agencies to evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed projects and mandates that they take steps to reduce or eliminate those impacts. While the law is traditionally associated with delaying physical construction projects, such as new housing developments, CASE argues that the environmental impact of thousands of returning commuters must undergo the exact same review process.
In one of the letters obtained by media outlets, the union asserted that the return-to-office order will “require hundreds of thousands of additional monthly commutes by state workers, creating hundreds of thousands of new car trips and thousands of tons of additional air pollution from automobile tailpipes.”
The union has threatened legal action if the state does not conduct a formal CEQA review. According to the letters, the union wants agencies to evaluate whether it is truly necessary for all state employees to work in person.
“CASE’s objective here is to ensure that telework decisions are made thoughtfully and transparently rather than through blanket mandates that undermine California’s climate goals,” the union stated.
Historically, CEQA lawsuits have been used by various groups in California to stall policies or projects they oppose, largely because the resulting legal challenges take a long time to resolve. For instance, petitioners previously used CEQA to delay the University of California, Berkeley from constructing new student housing, arguing the university failed to evaluate potential noise pollution caused by future residents.
This latest move by CASE is part of a broader, ongoing pushback against the governor’s mandate. Other labor groups and government employees have launched multiple attempts to overturn the four-day in-person requirement. In 2025, anonymous state workers funded billboards warning the public about increased traffic congestion resulting from the mandate, while other labor organizations filed lawsuits alleging the state breached California labor laws.
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