Federal judge reinstates employee appeals board member fired by Trump
by Ella Lee - 02/18/25 4:00 PM ET
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily reinstated a member of a three-person federal employee appeals board who was fired by President Trump.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said Cathy Harris, who chaired the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) during the Biden administration, must be reinstated to her position and returned full access to the benefits of her office until further order of the court. The judge also barred recognizing any other person as a member of the MSPB in Harris’s position.
“The Court concludes that Harris has established a strong likelihood of success on the merits, that irreparable harm is likely to occur in the absence of injunctive relief and that the public interest weighs in favor of enjoining Defendants’ actions,” Contreras wrote. “Harris has thus carried her burden to establish that a temporary restraining order is warranted here.”
Harris was fired via a one-sentence email from the Presidential Personnel Office last week. She had four years left in her seven-year term on the MSPB, from which the president can only remove members for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
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https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5151616-federal-judge-orders-reinstatement-of-merit-systems-protection-board-member/
