On July 28, NELA joined the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association (MWELA) in filing an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in Jackler & Jaroch v. MSPB & DOJ (Federal Circuit). Petitioners Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch were career civil servants, who were terminated in February 2025 without the minimal advance notice required by the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), in reviewing an original reinstatement finding, held that Article II abrogates Petitioners’ protection under the CSRA and that the MSPB lacked jurisdiction to hear their appeals. The brief examines the importance of the CSRA and extreme danger to the politically neutral civil service if the President is allowed to have universal termination rights for all executive branch employees, with no appeal right to the MSPB. As the brief states, “(n)othing in Article II requires that inferior officers or career federal employees serve at will. The Supreme Court’s cases recognize that presidential accountability is preserved through supervision and direction, not through a rule of universal removability. And although the government will invoke modern removal precedent, those decisions do not authorize the Executive to disregard statutory protections, bypass due process, or dismantle the merit-based civil service Congress created.”

NELA is grateful to Debra D’Agostino, Federal Practice Group, LLP (DC) for drafting this important brief.