A Federal judge on Tuesday temporarily reinstated the chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) who was fired by President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from removing Cathy Harris – a Democrat – from the MSPB. It also reinstates Harris as the chairwoman of the board while the judge considers her lawsuit alleging that her firing was unlawful.
The MSPB is an independent, quasi-judicial agency in the executive branch that serves to protect against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices. The three-member board hears appeals by Federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined.
President Trump demoted Harris as chair of the MSPB on his first day in office. He then fired her from the board on Feb. 10, despite her term ending in March 2028.
Harris filed a lawsuit on Feb. 11 that argued the president can remove an MSPB member “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Harris said President Trump “disregarded that clear statutory language” and fired her without a reason in a one-sentence email.
Harris’s reinstatement gives Democrats a 2-1 advantage on the board. The other MSPB members include Raymond Limon, who serves as vice chairman, and Henry Kerner.
According to the judge’s order, Trump officials are prohibited “from removing Harris from her office or in any way treating her as having been removed, denying or obstructing Harris’s access to any of the benefits or resources of her office, placing a replacement in Harris’s position, or otherwise recognizing any other person as a member of the MSPB in Harris’s position, pending further order of the Court.”
The judge’s decision is notable as other former Federal employees have also sued following the Trump administration’s recent mass firings.
For instance, eight former Federal agency inspectors general who were fired by President Trump have also filed a lawsuit to get their jobs back, claiming that the Trump administration violated Federal law in getting rid of them. The judge has yet to reach a decision on whether they should be reinstated.
