Susan McGuire Smith

Author: Susan McGuire Smith

Susan McGuire Smith spent most of her federal legal career with NASA, serving as Chief Counsel at Marshall Space Flight Center for 14 years. Her expertise is in government contracts, ethics, and personnel law.

18 Months in Prison for Making False Statements

An Air Force man thought the September 11 attacks were a “beautiful sight” and that the US deserved to be attacked. He ended up as a baggage screener with TSA but did not disclose his “near seditionist behavior” that led to an early discharge from the military. His appeal of his prison sentence is not convincing to a federal court.

Automatic Firing

The Internal Revenue Service does not play around with any employees who play games with their individual tax returns. The MSPB and a federal court recently upheld this theory as an IRS employee with improper deductions loses his appeals and his job.

120-Day Suspension Upheld

A GS-6 accounting technician argued that a 120-day suspension was retaliation against her for union activity after she was charged with several offenses including making false accusations against a supervisor. A federal court, however, finds the suspension was not an abuse of the agency’s discretion.

Firing the Judge

An Immigration Judge fired for repeated use of “sexist and ethnically insensitive generalizations” and profanity, failed to persuade the federal appeals court to overturn the Merit Systems Protection Board decision that upheld his firing.