WASHINGTON — Today, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in Harris v. Bessent, urging the Court to uphold long-standing limits on presidential removal power and protect the independence of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the agency responsible for adjudicating federal employee appeals.
The case centers on whether the President can remove MSPB members at will, an action L4GG argues would undermine due process protections for federal workers and erode the constitutional requirement of impartial adjudication.
L4GG filed the brief alongside amici Professors Nick Bednar, the McKnight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School; Victoria Nourse, the Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center; and Lawyers Defending American Democracy.
Professor Bednar, an expert in administrative law and the civil service, and Professor Nourse, a former appellate litigator at the Department of Justice and one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and its constitutional history, together provide historical and constitutional analysis demonstrating that Congress has long exercised its authority to insulate adjudicatory bodies from political interference.
The brief, which you can read in full here, argues:
The MSPB is a purely adjudicatory body. It functions like a court, hearing evidence, applying the law, and issuing binding decisions in disputes between federal employees and the government.
Congress has authority to protect adjudicatory independence. From the Founding era onward, Congress has created bodies insulated from political control to ensure fair and impartial decision-making.
At-will removal would violate due process. Allowing the President to remove MSPB members freely would compromise the neutrality of the tribunal and undermine the Fifth Amendment guarantee of a fair hearing.
Weakening MSPB independence risks system-wide consequences. Removing protections could destabilize the Board’s ability to function, leaving thousands of federal employees without a meaningful forum to challenge wrongful termination.
“The Constitution requires that when the government acts against its own employees, those individuals are entitled to a fair hearing before an impartial decisionmaker,” said Professor Nourse. “Allowing political control over that process would fundamentally undermine those protections.”
Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) is a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of 125,000 lawyers, law students, and advocates in the fight for justice. We identify where lawyers can make the greatest impact and mobilize them to defend democracy and the rule of law, protect civil and human rights, and advance environmental justice through coordinated legal action and advocacy efforts that create meaningful change for all Americans.