The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday granted two former Justice Department employees’ request to expedite the appeal of their 2025 firings, which the Trump administration has argued were exempt from civil service rules.
Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch were removed from their positions as immigration judges last year, with Article II of the Constitution cited as the sole justification for their termination. An administrative law judge overturned both employees’ firings, but in March, the Merit Systems Protection Board reversed that decision, in the process relinquishing jurisdiction over cases in which federal agencies cite constitutional authority to justify an adverse personnel action.
MSPB’s decision, upending decades of precedent, found that inferior officers, like federal immigration judges, may be removed at-will, provided their responsibilities do not exceed “limited duties and no policymaking.” That ruling came after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion arguing that the quasi-judicial body is “obligated” to consider agencies’ constitutional claims during adverse action appeals.
But attorneys for Jackler and Jaroch, who appealed MSPB’s ruling directly to the Federal Circuit, said the decision misconstrues a description of inferior officers in a Supreme Court case involving removal protections for principal officers for a distinction creating two tiers of inferior officer—some whose responsibilities are limited and for whom removal protections are legal and others whose duties exceed that threshold and may be removed at will.
The former immigration judges appealed MSPB’s decision directly to the Federal Circuit court and requested that the entire court hear the case, rather than the traditional three-judge panel. Appellate courts rarely grant such requests—the last instance in recent memory was when the same court agreed to hear legal challenges to President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs, which the Supreme Court ultimately invalidated earlier this year.
“The petition and response were referred to the circuit judges in regular active service,” the court’s order states. “A poll was requested and taken, and the court decided that the petition for review warrants en banc consideration.”
Since Trump returned to office last year, hundreds of Justice Department workers have been subject to so-called “Article II firings,” including immigration judges, employees previously assigned to cases investigating the president and prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases. The immigration judges’ appeal has attracted support from federal employee unions, Democratic lawmakers, as well as a professional association representing MSPB workers, who all have filed friend-of-the-court briefs.
In a statement Wednesday, Nathaniel Zelinsky, an attorney with the Washington Litigation Group representing the fired feds, applauded the court’s ruling.
“The Federal Circuit’s decision to hear this case en banc indicates how important this appeal is,” he said. “The government has asserted a constitutional right to neuter the laws that protect our nation’s public servants from abuse and discrimination. That is as legally wrong as it is deeply unjust. We look forward to arguing this matter before the full court of appeals.”
