Washington – The more than 2 million federal employees have legal rights as civil servants who are supposed to protect them from dismissing them unjustly, also for political reasons.
But the government's Trump government Mass shots Have uncovered a mistake that made tens of thousands unprotected when they need the most protection.
The Reform Act of the 1978 public service founded an administrative authority in the government to hear complaints from federal workers who say that they were wrongly downgraded or released. And the Supreme Court said This agency offers the “exclusive forum” To decide these claims, not an independent federal court.
In the past few weeks, four federal judges have excluded large lawsuits, citing these procedural rule.
The judges expressed regret, however, said that they “lacked the responsibility of the topic in order to hear the symptoms or to decide on the legality of the shots.
“A rush of executives caused by design, fault and even chaos in widespread American society quarters.” wrote when discharging a suit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union and four other groups.
However, the judges are “obliged to make legal questions on the basis of an equal application of law and precedent-regardless of the identity of the legal disputes or sometimes the consequences of their decisions for average people,” he said.
Legal experts say that the public service system has not been set up with the sudden discharge of thousands of employees.
“There is no legal mechanism to stop these burns,” said Suzanne Summerlin, a lawyer in Washington, who represents the federal employee. “If you cannot go to court, there is no way to stop them. You can take an administrative complaint, but you have to go through the process to the end and that takes many years. The Merit Systems Protection Board still has cases from the first Trump management. “
She said that employees who are wrongly released can “claim a claim and obtain retrospective relief. That could be back and services, which could lead to a large award, ”she said. “But it will take years to win your case.”
The law allows the loss page to apply for a review before a special federal court of appeal, which confirms about 95% of the decisions of the board of directors.
The law of the public service “was designed for the normal times,” said the law professor of George Washington University, Alan Morrison. “Nobody expected the president one day want to fire 50,000 employees at the same time. Some of these plaintiffs will be dead before the Merit Systems Protection Board finally decides their cases. “
The advisor of the White House, Elon Musk, flashes a “Doge” t -shirt, the acronym for his so -called Ministry of Government Efficiency.
(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)
Under the direction of Elon Musk, the advisor of the White House, the Trump government has moved to close entire agencies and departments and to reduce its employees drastically.
In response to this, dozens of lawsuits were submitted in which the Trump officials violated the law, and most complaints ask a judge to order a stopover. This could be done by a temporary injunction or a more permanent injunction.
Democratic prosecutors and other plaintiffs have received decisions that blocked the “freezing” of the government's financing and its rejection of extending money approved by the congress.
However, the law on the public service has made it much more difficult to protect federal employees.
To avoid the process barrier, Democratic lawyers sued by 20 countries Last week, the mass shots violated their states through “reduced tax revenue and increased demands for social services”.
The US district judge William Alsup in San Francisco granted a “limited injunction” at the end of February to stop the shots in the National Park service, based on a lawsuit from the coalition for the protection of the America National Parks and in some other agencies that had organized supporters.
However, the judges said that according to the law of the public service, they had no authority in order to block the decisions of the administration to suspend or dismiss employees.
In 2012 they quoted the decision of the Supreme Court in Elgin against Department of Treasury. In a 6: 3 decision, the judges said that a dismissed employee had no right to sue before a federal court because of his dismissal for non-registration for the selective service before a federal court.
The court said that the law on channels said such claims to the administrative authority and the “jurisdiction of the district court” because the congress had intended that the MSPB would be “the exclusive Avenue” for submitting such claims.
However, all of these suits are in the provisional stage. Finally, they were not decided by a US Court of Appeal. When the administration loses there, Trump's lawyers are almost certain that they will take the Supreme Court.
The result will probably not activate the decisions of an administrative authority.
In 1978, the congress founded two new agencies to hear and solve claims from federal employees, which were abused, downgraded or dismissed for inadmissible reasons. One of them was the Merit Systems Protection Board, while the Federal Working Agency hears complaint claims from union employees.
Both are to be directed by a three -member board, but vacancies are common. The MSPB currently has a Republican who, as a acting chair and a democrat, Cathy Harris, who wants to fire Trump. The president can also fill the free third seat with another Republican.
The FLRA also has two members of opposite parties and one position.
Summerlin said she expected “these boards during this administration will not be functional. You want to switch off these agencies and you will not be disturbed by residues. “