Judge blocks Trump administration from firing Democratic member of Merit Systems Protection Board

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from firing a Democratic member of a government employee appeals board, which has experienced a surge in cases as a result of the president’s mass firings and layoffs of civil servants. 

District Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee, enjoined administration officials from removing Cathy Harris as a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board without cause. Harris had been temporarily reinstated by Contreras until he ruled on the preliminary injunction, the hearing for which occurred on Monday.  

Trump attempted to fire Harris on Feb. 10, though her term doesn’t expire until 2028. In her lawsuit, Harris argued that the president can only remove an MSPB member for "inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” Her notice of removal, however, did not provide a justification for the firing. 

Likewise, a federal judge on Saturday stopped the removal of Hampton Dellinger as special counsel, a position that leads an office to protect federal employees from prohibited personnel practices and safeguard whistleblowers. 

On Feb. 7, Trump attempted to fire Dellinger, a Biden appointee, ahead of the expiration of his term in 2029 and without a specified reason. Similar to Harris, Dellinger contended in his lawsuit that a president can only remove the special counsel for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office,” and a judge allowed him to continue to lead the Office of Special Counsel until ruling on the preliminary injunction. 

The Trump administration has appealed the Dellinger decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

Raymond Limon, a Democratic member of the MSPB, retired on Feb. 28, which was the last day of his term. The departure leaves two individuals on the three-member board, which can have no more than two members of the same political party on it.

Limon on Feb. 25 temporarily reinstated six probationary federal employees whose firings the OSC determined were likely unlawful. That ruling preceded a federal court decision two days later to rescind the directives that led to the mass firings of recent hires and other government workers on their probationary periods.