By Nate Raymond and Daniel Visner
(Reuters) -on Tuesday the Federal Judge ordered a Democrat who served as chairman of an US agency who hears appeals by federal government officials when they were dismissed or disciplined to be temporarily restored after Republican US President Donald Trump has been fired.
US District Judge Rudolf Contreras in Washington, Colombia District, has issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the Trump administration from removing Katie Harris from her position in the Board of Merit Systems as he considers her court case in which he alleged that its termination is illegal.
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The case is one of several chairs or members of independent councils fired by Trump since he took office last month, which would probably test the scope of the president’s powers over these agencies.
Federal workers who lose their jobs can challenge a board, an independent three -member group that wants to be restored. This role can put it in the central place, as Trump moves quickly to shrink the workforce of the federal government.
The Trump administration began to fire thousands of people last week, according to alliances and former employees, and signal that larger cuts were coming. He did not say how many people were fired.
Conteras in a 21 -page decision stated that Trump’s attempt to fire Harris last week may have violated the Federal Law, creating a council that allows members to be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect or abuse.”
“There is a significant public interest in getting government agencies to comply with federal laws that manage their existence and operations,” writes Contreras, appointed to former Democrats President Barack Obama.
The White House and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of Justice is arguing in the case of Harris and others that the US Constitution grants the President broad powers to remove any employee responsible for the implementation of federal laws.
Michael Croach, Harris’s lawyer, said in an email: “This, of course, is just the first step in a series of battles that will almost certainly end in the Supreme Court. But this is an extremely important first step.”
Harris was appointed to MSPB in 2022 by Trump’s democratic predecessor Joe Biden and served as its chairman while Trump took office last month. Trump named Henry Kerner, Republican, as acting chairman of the board before fire Harris last week.
The removal of Trump of Harris left the board with a separation of 1-1 and the period of the rest of the Democrat, Raymond Lemon, ready to expire on March 1. Harris’s recovery means that the board will still have a quorum that can solve cases after leaving lemon.
Contreras on Tuesday ordered Harris to be restored as a chairman, saying she was confirmed in this position by the US Senate. The judge scheduled a hearing for March 3 whether to continue to allow Harris to stay on the council in anticipation of the result of the case.
Trump has removed the employees appointed by the President from a number of independent agencies, including the National Board of Labor Relations and a group that listens to labor disputes between federal agencies and alliances of their employees, and he has fired more than a dozen general inspectors who act as an independent guards.
The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in its candidacy to dismiss the head of the Special Lawyers Office, who impose laws defending government signals after a federal judge temporarily blocks its removal. The case is the first to include Trump’s actions in his second term to reach the highest court in the country.
(Nate Raymond Report in Boston and Daniel Visner in Obani, New York; Edit by Leslie Adler, Sandra Mahler, Deep Babington and Alexia Garafalvi)