Trump-Fired Worker Appeals Panel Member to Keep Her Position (1)

Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris can keep her position until the end of her term, reversing President Donald Trump’s decision to fire her in February, a US district judge ruled Tuesday.

Trump doesn’t have the authority to remove Harris from her post “at will,” Judge Rudolph Contreras of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in granting summary judgment to Harris as well as a permanent injunction.

Contreras, an Obama appointee, pointed to Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a US Supreme Court case that authorized removal protections for independent agency leaders. He said those safeguards apply to MSPB members.

The ruling is another legal setback for Trump, who has also fired members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and other agencies.

A separate federal judge on March 1 also raised Humphrey’s Executor in entering judgment in favor of Hampton Dellinger, the Office of Special Counsel leader who Trump also terminated. The administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in that case.

“I’m glad the court has ruled on just how illegal Donald Trump’s action here has been,” Harris said in a statement. “I am prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States to vindicate our constitutional principles.”

The president fired Harris, a Democrat, on Feb. 10. Her term runs until 2028.

Tuesday’s ruling leaves the panel with one Republican and one Democratic member. Trump has the opportunity to give the board a Republican majority by nominating a third member.

The MSPB mediates disputes between federal agencies and their employees. The Trump administration has fired more than 31,000 federal workers since taking office, according to Bloomberg Law’s analysis. MSPB complaints rose in February, around the same time the downsizing began.

Contreras also vacated an earlier order temporarily reinstating Harris. The Trump administration had appealed that order to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The US District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to Bloomberg Law’s request for comment on Tuesday’s ruling.

The case is Harris v. Bessent, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00412, 3/4/25.