Trump cannot oust chair of federal employees' appeal board, US judge rules

Washington: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Republican US President Donald Trump from firing the Democratic chair of a US agency that hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined.

US District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, DC, ruled that Trump could not remove without cause Cathy Harris from her position at the Merit Systems Protection Board before her term expires in three years, saying the agency's "mission and purpose require independence."

Federal workers who lose their jobs can bring a challenge before the merit board, an independent three-member panel, seeking to be reinstated. That role could put it in a central spot as Trump moves swiftly to shrink the federal government's workforce.

The judge had issued a temporary restraining order on February 18 that required Harris to be reinstated as the board's chair while he considered her claims that Trump had illegally fired her earlier that month.

The Trump administration had argued that a ruling for Harris would encroach on the president's broad authority to remove "principal officers" who are exercising executive power at federal agencies.

But Contreras, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said the statutory protections the board's members enjoy from being removed without cause were constitutional under a 90-year-old US Supreme Court ruling that has long limited a president's ability to fire certain agency heads.

Contreras said by law Harris could only be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance. Absent those grounds, he said the Trump administration was barred from removing Harris from office or treating her as if she had been removed from her position.

The Trump administration moved swiftly to appeal the ruling, which the Justice Department in court papers described as an "extraordinary intrusion into the president's authority."

Harris in a statement said she was prepared to go all the way to the US Supreme Court "to vindicate our constitutional principles."

"All I want to do is do the job the United States Congress asked me to do," she said.

Potential roadblock

The merit board has proved to be a potential roadblock in the Trump administration's efforts to carry out mass firings of probationary workers, after having halted the firing of six such employees at the request of a watchdog agency whose leader Trump has also sought to fire, Hampton Dellinger of the US Office of Special Counsel.

While last week's decision to stay the six employees' firings for 45 days only applies to a handful of the thousands of probationary federal employees recently terminated, their lawyers are working to expand the order to cover others. Dellinger on Tuesday said he had asked to the board to halt the firing of thousands of US Department of Agriculture employees.

More than 4,800 workers have filed complaints with the board since Trump took office, a massive surge for an agency with fewer than 300 employees. The board had received between 70 and 110 complaints each week in the months before Trump took office.

Legal experts have cautioned that some workers caught up in Trump's mass firings may be discouraged from pursuing legal action due to the lengthy and complicated administrative process before the merit board and the limited recourse the board can provide.

Harris was appointed to the merit board in 2022 by Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, to serve a seven-year term. Trump fired her on February 10 and named Henry Kerner, a Republican, as acting chair of the board.

Trump's removal of Harris had threatened to result in the board losing quorum and being unable to decide cases, as the term of its remaining Democrat, Raymond Limon, expired on Friday.