Immigration Judge Firings Upheld in Boost for Trump Cuts (1)

A federal panel has affirmed the attorney general’s constitutional right to terminate Justice Department immigration judges, a sweeping precedential departure that may hand President Donald Trump broad authority to fire federal employees without cause.

The independent, Republican-controlled Merit Systems Protection Board posted an order early Saturday that for the first time endorsed the Trump administration’s argument that Article II of the Constitution permits the president to remove “inferior officers"—in this case, two immigration judges fired in February 2025.

The “extraordinary” decision will be appealed in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit first thing Monday, said Nathaniel Zelinsky, a lawyer for the terminated judges.

“The board’s decision in this case violates more than a century of precedent,” Zelinsky, senior counsel with Washington Litigation Group, said in an interview. “If this decision stands, millions of federal workers will live in fear of arbitrary abuse and unjust discrimination. The board decision means that the president could tomorrow fire millions of federal workers based on their political party, their race, their gender, even their religion—and courts and Congress would be powerless to stop it.”

A DOJ spokesperson said the department is confident the decision will be upheld.

“As the court correctly held, these terminations are lawful under Article II and this Department of Justice is confident that this decision will withstand further legal scrutiny,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The two-member MSPB panel reversed an administrative judge’s decision that reinstated the fired DOJ employees. The board determined it lacks jurisdiction to intervene in the attorney general’s constitutionally protected terminations.

The Justice Department argued that Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, who were judges within DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, lacked civil service protections due to the president’s constitutional authority to manage the executive branch.

Since early in Trump’s second term, this constitutional re-interpretation has been the administration’s repeatedly stated basis for mass terminations of federal workers whose employment rights have long been protected under civil service law.

The MSPB, a quasi-judicial executive branch agency conducting initial review of federal employees’ wrongful termination claims, had paused other similar cases, waiting until the late Friday decision on the immigration judges to weigh in on whether Trump has such authority to override statutory removal protections.

The board’s two members—both Republicans after Trump fired the sole Democrat last year—analyzed Supreme Court opinions and concluded the MSPB cannot interfere with the president’s termination power. That’s because the immigration judges qualify as “inferior officers” who can be removed at will.

The Trump administration can now cite the board’s finding to justify other terminations, though a final outcome is uncertain, as the case could land at the Supreme Court.

“It further emboldens the Department of Justice to terminate employees at almost every level, with the premise that they have no legal recourse,” said Kevin Owen, a veteran practitioner before the MSPB on behalf of federal workers. “It’s an affront to the civil service and it is stripping protections from DOJ employees and from federal employees broadly.”