With Harris remaining on the board, the MSPB continues to have a quorum of two, split by party with Republican Henry Kerner. Raymond Limon, a Democrat, left the board when his term expired March 1. Image: HSGAC Dems
By: FEDweek StaffA federal judge has overturned the Trump administration’s firing of a member of the MSPB governing board in a ruling that mirrors one keeping in place the head of the Office of Special Counsel.
The order from District Judge Rudolph Contreras of the federal district court in the District of Columbia says that a member of the MSPB board by law may be removed “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” but that the White House cited none of those grounds in firing Cathy Harris in a terse email.
A different judge days earlier had cited that same language in keeping in office Hampton Dellinger, who had been fired in the same way from the OSC. In both cases, the judges also cited provisions of the law designating the agencies as independent agencies and held that those protections are constitutional. Both earlier had issued temporary orders keeping them in office pending a fuller hearing.
“Defendants do not dispute that Harris has been efficient and effective in her role at the MSPB,” the judge wrote, citing her work along with other members to decide almost all of some 3,800 cases that had built up during the first Trump administration when the board lacked a quorum while also staying current on newly filed appeals.
“Defendants make no effort to enlighten the Court as to how Harris’s handling of these cases might differ from the President’s preferred approach, let alone in a manner that might tilt the public interest factor in their favor. Defendants additionally overlook the fact that if Harris or her colleagues were ever to become inefficient, neglect their duty, or engage in malfeasance in office, the President would be empowered to remove them for cause,” he wrote.
With Harris remaining on the board, the MSPB continues to have a quorum of two, split by party with Republican Henry Kerner. Raymond Limon, a Democrat, left the board when his term expired March 1. Harris’s term continues into 2028.
Having a quorum in the time ahead could prove crucial as the administration has laid off tens of thousands of probationary employees and has started RIFs in some agencies—including OPM and GSA—under a directive that anticipates “wide-scale” layoffs of tenured employees, as well.
Number of Cases Received in
MSPB’s Regional and Field Offices
Fiscal Year 2025
MSPB already is experiencing a surge of complaints filed before its hearing officers, with nearly 2,200 filed in the week ending March 1 alone. That made a total of more than 4,500 in the three weeks since layoffs of probationary employees ramped up, after previously averaging about 100 a week.
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