A federal judge has just permanently reinstated a Joe Biden appointee to her job in the federal government after President Trump fired her from the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The MSPB is “the primary agency used by civil servants to file complaints within the federal government,” and Cathy Harris is the chair of that board. She was confirmed by the Senate in 2022 and she has a 7-year term.
Here’s more from Fox News:
The former chairwoman of a little-known agency that hears appeals by fired or disciplined federal government employees has been ordered reinstated to her position by a federal judge.
Cathy Harris, a Democrat who led the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) until she was fired by President Donald Trump on Feb. 10, has been put back in her position after a judge issued a permanent injunction.
Harris had filed an appeal the day after her sacking, arguing that Trump and other federal officials did not have the authority to terminate her and that an email outlining her dismissal showed no reason for cause to terminate her.
She cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 ruling in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has limited a president’s ability to fire certain agency heads. Some justices on today’s 6-3 conservative-majority court have signaled a willingness to rein in or perhaps overturn that ruling.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Rudolph Contreras of the District of Columbia agreed with Harris and wrote that federal law states that members of the MSPB may be removed from office “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Contreras wrote that President Donald Trump informed Harris that her position on the MSPB was “terminated, effective immediately,” but provided no reason for Harris’s termination.
Harris was appointed to the board in 2022 by former President Joe Biden for a 7-year term. The merit Systems Protection Board is the primary agency used by civil servants to file complaints within the federal government.
Trump named Henry Kerner, a Republican, as its acting chair upon returning to the White House on Jan. 20.
Contreras further ordered that Harris shall continue to serve as a member of the MSPB until her term expires, unless she is earlier removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office under that statute.
Even if she was confirmed by the Senate, she is still a political appointee and all of them serve at the president’s behest. As I’ve said often, I am no legal beagle. But I’d think there’s a good chance this gets overturned on appeal.
Also, the presiding judge here is an Obama appointeee.