US judge blocks Trump from removing Democrat from government workplace board

By Nate Raymond and Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a Democrat who served as the chair of a U.S. agency that hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined to be temporarily reinstated after Republican U.S. President Donald Trump fired her.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from removing Cathy Harris from her position on the Merit Systems Protection Board while he considers her lawsuit alleging that her removal was unlawful.

Federal workers who lose their jobs can bring a challenge before the board, an independent three-member panel, seeking to be reinstated. That role could put the board in a central spot as Trump moves swiftly to shrink the federal government's workforce.

Contreras in a 21-page ruling said Trump's attempt to fire Harris last week likely violated a federal law allowing board members to be removed only for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."

"There is a substantial public interest in having governmental agencies abide by the federal laws that govern their existence and operations," wrote Contreras, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)