The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ousted chief operating officer sued the Trump administration on Thursday in federal court, making a legal argument that could set a course for other fired government workers seeking reinstatement.
The former FEMA official, Mary Comans, argues that the administrative body designated to hear such cases, called the Merit System Protections Board, has become so dysfunctional under the Trump administration that it is not a viable option for her to make her case. As a result, her lawyers say, a federal judge should hear her argument that President Trump fired her unlawfully and in violation of longstanding civil service protections.
Fired employees have struggled to get a judge to hear their cases because Congress set up a separate system to referee such employment disputes.
Ms. Comans first filed a complaint with the Merit System Protections Board in March after she was dismissed. But now that board is unable to make decisions because it lacks a quorum since
Mr. Trump fired
one of the members.
The system established by Congress for federal employment disputes “has been thwarted,” the lawyers said in the complaint filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Donald Trump has taken a page right out of Kafka’s playbook,” said Norm Eisen, one of the lawyers representing Ms. Comans. “He argues that people are forced to go to the M.S.P.B. to contest his nakedly political and illegal firings, and then he handicaps the M.S.P.B. to prevent them from adjudicating those cases,” he said, using an acronym to refer to the Merit System Protections Board.
Soon after Mr. Trump returned to the White House, he and top officials began a firing spree across the government, an effort they said would make the government more efficient. With the help of his one-time adviser Elon Musk, Mr. Trump fired thousands of federal workers, and in some cases
gutted entire agencies
.
The federal government has long been seen as a beacon of job security because of the civil service protections enjoyed by the work force. But the majority of those fired could not have their day in federal court because the judges did not have the jurisdiction to hear them.
There are scores of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s firings, but for the most part, fired federal workers are not the plaintiffs. The cases currently plodding through the courts are brought by organizations, groups and state and local governments that argue they are harmed because they rely on particular federal services or funding.
If Ms. Comans’s lawyers are able to convince the judicial branch that she is allowed to fight her termination in district court, it could have large implications for the thousands of fired employees who are waiting for the merit systems board to consider their disputes.
“Firing a career employee without cause, without process, and without explanation is illegal and its authoritarian,” said Mark S. Zaid, one of the lawyers representing Ms. Comans. “This case seeks recourse for a wrongfully terminated career employee.”
