Removal Lawsuit Tracker

Monitoring ongoing federal litigation challenging the Trump Administration's attempts to remove members of independent boards, commissions, and other entities

📊 2025 Removal Litigation Overview

9 Active Cases challenging unprecedented removals across federal agencies and independent institutions

Active Litigation

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████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ HARRIS V. BESSENT ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ -->

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        <td style="padding: 1rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(180, 83, 9, 0.2); vertical-align: top;">
            <div style="font-weight: 600; color: #92400e; font-size: 1rem;">Harris v. Bessent <span style="font-size: 0.8rem; color: #6b5b47;">▼</span></div>
            <div style="font-size: 0.85rem; color: #6b5b47; font-style: italic; margin-top: 0.2rem;">Merit Systems Protection Board</div>
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        <td style="padding: 1rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(180, 83, 9, 0.2); vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.85rem; color: #6b5b47;">Feb 2025</td>
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                    <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=24A966" style="text-decoration: none;">
                        <span style="display: inline-block; padding: 0.25rem 0.6rem; border-radius: 4px; font-size: 0.75rem; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.5px; background: #dc2626; color: white; cursor: pointer;">Supreme Court</span>
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                    <div style="margin-left: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.3rem; font-size: 0.75rem;">Stay granted (May 22)</div>
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                    <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69658769/cathy-harris-v-scott-bessent/" style="text-decoration: none;">
                        <span style="display: inline-block; padding: 0.25rem 0.6rem; border-radius: 4px; font-size: 0.75rem; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.5px; background: #22c55e; color: white; cursor: pointer;">D.C. Circuit</span>
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                    <div style="margin-left: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.3rem; font-size: 0.75rem;">Merits pending (argued May 16)</div>
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                    <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69631849/harris-v-bessent/" style="text-decoration: none;">
                        <span style="display: inline-block; padding: 0.25rem 0.6rem; border-radius: 4px; font-size: 0.75rem; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.5px; background: #dc2626; color: white; cursor: pointer;">D.C. District Court</span>
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                    <div style="margin-left: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.3rem; font-size: 0.75rem;">Summary judgment & preliminary injunction granted</div>
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        <td style="padding: 1rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(180, 83, 9, 0.2); vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.85rem; color: #374151;">Whether the President can remove MSPB members without cause despite statutory "for cause" protections</td>
        <td style="padding: 1rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(180, 83, 9, 0.2); vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.85rem; color: #374151; font-weight: 500;">Supreme Court granted stay, signaling likely reversal of <em>Humphrey's Executor</em> protections</td>
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    <tr id="harris-details" style="display: none; background: rgba(255, 251, 235, 0.9);">
        <td colspan="5" style="padding: 1rem; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(180, 83, 9, 0.2); font-size: 0.9rem; line-height: 1.5;">
            <strong>Case Summary:</strong> Board Member Harris filed suit on February 22, 2025, after being removed by President Trump without cause. Under federal law, MSPB members can only be fired "for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." The D.C. district court issued a preliminary injunction (PI) reinstating Harris and finding for Harris on summary judgment on the merits. The government appealed the PI and the order granting summary judgment to the D.C. Circuit. On appeal, this case has been combined with <em>Wilcox v. Trump</em>. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit reversed the district court on the stay matter on March 28, 2025. Harris and Wilcox appealed the issuance of a stay to the full D.C. Circuit, which reversed the panel on April 7. The government then appealed the denial of a stay to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted the stay on May 22, 2025, finding that the government was likely to prevail on the merits.
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<! data-preserve-html-node="true"-- ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ WILCOX V. TRUMP ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ -->

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Case & Entity Filed Court Status Issue Key Developments
Wilcox v. Trump
National Labor Relations Board
Feb 5, 2025
Supreme Court
Stay granted (May 22)
D.C. Circuit
Combined with Harris case
D.C. District Court
Summary judgment & preliminary injunction granted
Whether the President can remove NLRB members without cause despite statutory protections Supreme Court granted stay, combined with Harris case
Grundmann v. Trump
Federal Labor Relations Authority
Feb 13, 2025
D.C. Circuit
Appeal pending (filed May 8)
Stay motion pending
D.C. District Court
Summary judgment & permanent injunction granted
Whether the President can remove FLRA members without cause despite statutory protections District court found removal unlawful; government appealed injunction
Slaughter v. Trump
Federal Trade Commission
Feb 13, 2025
D.C. District Court
Cross-motions pending
Hearing held May 20
Classic test of Humphrey's Executor - FTC commissioner removal without cause Cross-motions for summary judgment heard; decision pending
U.S. Institute of Peace v. Jackson
U.S. Institute of Peace
Mar 18, 2025
D.C. Circuit
Appeal filed May 21
Stay denied May 23
D.C. District Court
Summary judgment granted - found takeover unlawful
Whether the President can remove board of congressionally-created institution despite statutory protections District court called takeover "gross usurpation of power"; stay denied
Aviel v. Gor
Inter-American Foundation
Mar 17, 2025
D.C. Circuit
Stay denied June 5
D.C. District Court
Preliminary injunction granted April 4
Whether the President can appoint "acting" board members without Senate confirmation Court: "problem of President's own making" - stay denied on appeal
Brehm v. Marocco
African Development Foundation
Mar 6, 2025
D.C. District Court
Motions hearing held April 16
Decision pending
Whether the President can appoint "acting" board members without Senate confirmation Similar facts to IAF case; court heard arguments on government's "inherent authority" claim
Corporation for Public Broadcasting v. Trump
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Apr 29, 2025
D.C. District Court
TRO briefing complete
Decision pending
Whether the President can remove CPB board members without cause On June 8, 2025, the district court denied CPB's emergency injunctive relief.
Storch v. Hegseth
Inspector General Act
Feb 12, 2025
D.C. District Court
Cross-motions argued March 27
Decision pending
Whether the President must provide 30-day Congressional notice before IG removal 17 IGs fired without required Congressional notice; summary judgment pending

Last Updated: June 7, 2025 | Report Updates or Corrections
This tracker focuses on cases with significant constitutional implications for executive power and government oversight.