On April 23, six Democratic U.S. Senators filed an amicus brief petitioning the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that allowed President Trump to fire Cathy Harris as a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) in 2025. The MSPB is an independent agency created by the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) that protects federal employees against partisan political abuses and prohibited personnel practices by adjudicating appeals, conducting studies of the civil service, and reviewing OPM actions.

The MSPB currently has two Republican members and no Democratic members. The board can have up to three members, with no more than two from the same party.

Harris, a Democrat, assumed her role at MSPB in 2022 and her term as a member of MSPB was set to expire on March 1, 2028. She contends her termination violates the law, which states MSPB board members can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office,” which the Trump administration did not allege. A December 2025 appeals court ruling upheld her termination.

The six senators – Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Gary Peters (D-MI) – argue that the executive action eliminates the MSPB’s independence, as created by the CSRA. They submitted the brief “to explain why the D.C. Circuit’s errant decision jeopardizes the independence of virtually all non-Article III tribunals and why invalidating the MSPB’s removal protections would gut an essential feature of the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA).”

“Congress took great pains to protect the MSPB’s processes from political meddling. It assigned Board members 7-year terms and mandated that the Board be composed of members of both parties. Congress understood, however, that these protections were mere formalities without removal restrictions. As recent history shows, a President with unfettered removal authority can reconstitute the Board’s composition whenever he so desires, bring its proceedings to a halt by denying it a quorum, or dictate the outcome of its proceedings by forcing its members to conform their conduct to his perceived preferences under pain of removal,” the Senators wrote.

Harris has petitioned the Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit’s December 2025 decision that upheld her 2025 removal. The Court has not yet scheduled arguments or decided whether to hear the case.

To read the full amicus brief, click here.