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 ...