By Andrew Goudsward, Daniel Wiessner and Nate Raymond
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two Democratic appointees to U.S. agencies tasked with safeguarding federal government employees’ rights pushed courts on Thursday to reinstate them after they were fired by President Donald Trump.
Their move came the day after a judge temporarily prevented the Republican president from removing a third such official.
Lawyers for Cathy Harris appeared before a federal judge in Washington to argue Trump unlawfully fired her from her position on the Merit Systems Protection Board, hours after Susan Tsui Grundmann sued over Trump’s decision this week to remove her as chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The cases were filed in the same court in Washington where a judge late Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order to allow Hampton Dellinger to remain for now the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal employees from being punished for whistle-blowing and other practices.
The Merit Systems Protection Board hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined, while the Federal Labor Relations Authority administers the labor-management relations program for more than 2 million federal employees.
Trump has fired numerous officials with independent government agencies since returning to office on January 20. The Republican president has moved aggressively to remake the federal government and shrink its workforce with the aid of billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Mass firings were underway at multiple U.S. government agencies, union sources and employees familiar with the layoffs told Reuters on Thursday.
Lawyers for all three fired officials argued that before their terms expire they can only be fired for cause. They cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 ruling in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has limited a president’s ability to fire certain agency heads.
“We’re asking for emergency interim relief from the president’s illegal order because it threatens the independence of the MSPB,” Linda Correia, a lawyer for Harris, told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in court on Thursday.
She, as well lawyers for Dellinger, in court papers made a similar claim that it was urgent they be returned to their posts given the roles of their agencies protecting federal workers and the “historic upheaval currently occurring within federal employment.”
Justice Department attorney Madeline McMahon argued at Thursday’s hearing that Harris could be fired.
“The MSPB exercises executive power and is located within the executive branch, so its members must be fully accountable to the president,” she said.
Contreras did not immediately rule but appeared skeptical of the administration’s position. “I think that you think I have a little bit more leeway in dealing with existing Supreme Court precedent than I do,” he said.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Daniel Wiessner and Nate Raymond; Editing by Will Dunham, Andy Sullivan, Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)
