Merit Systems Protection Board MSPB

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 broke up the Civil Service Commission, which had both managed the federal workforce and judged employee complaints, into the Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Merit Systems Protection Board, which began operating on January 1, 1979. The Board has three members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to seven-year terms, no more than two from the same party, removable under the statute only for cause.

Federal employees who are fired, demoted, suspended for more than two weeks, or laid off in a reduction in force can appeal to the MSPB. Administrative judges in regional offices hold hearings and issue initial decisions, which either side can ask the three-member Board to review, and further appeals go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Board also hears whistleblower reprisal cases and Hatch Act charges brought by the Office of Special Counsel, and studies how well the merit system is working.

The Board lacked a quorum from January 2017 to March 2022, the longest gap in its history, leaving a backlog of thousands of cases. In 2025 mass firings of probationary employees and reductions in force brought a surge of appeals, while President Trump removed a Democratic member, Cathy Harris. On May 22, 2025, in Trump v. Wilcox, the Supreme Court allowed her removal and that of a labor board member to stand while their cases proceeded. The Court's June 2026 decision in Trump v. Slaughter, overruling Humphrey's Executor, largely settled the President's power to remove such members, though it left open questions about adjudicatory bodies. Supporters said the President must control executive agencies, while unions and good-government groups warned that the merit system's protections depend on an independent referee.