Fed employee appeals system independence at stake in new Supreme Court brief

A group of Senate Democrats on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that enabled President Donald Trump to fire a member of their party from the agency that adjudicates federal employees’ appeals of adverse personnel actions. 

In 2025, the president removed Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris as well as several other Democratic leaders of independent agencies. 

Harris has argued that her firing violates the law, which stipulates that MSPB board members can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” A federal appeals court in December, however, determined her ouster was lawful because “Congress may not restrict the president’s ability to remove principal officers who wield substantial executive power.” 

In their amicus brief, Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Mark Warner, D-Va., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., contended that allowing a president to fire an MSPB member would upend the appeals system Congress set up for civil servants. 

“The MSPB’s independence is central to the proper functioning of the civil service system,” they wrote. “Congress enacted the [Civil Service Reform Act] amid a growing consensus that the existing regime had become politically corrupted and inefficient. Congress’ answer to political meddling in the civil service was to create an independent MSPB to adjudicate federal employee claims.” 

The Supreme Court has already heard arguments in a similar case regarding Trump’s firing of Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. Harris’ attorneys, however, have argued that the MSPB member’s removal is a legally distinct matter. 

There can be up to three members of the MSPB, and no more than two can be from the same political party. The agency currently has two Republican members. 

The MSPB in March ruled that the president has the authority to remove immigration judges and similar officials on an at-will basis. In response, a group of Senate Democrats likewise urged a federal court to expedite its consideration of two immigration judges’ appeal of their firings.