FLRA’s Susan Tsui Grundmann Reinstated by DC District Court
Federal district courts are working hard to try to determine how President Trump should run the government. There are 94 U.S. district courts, which include 89 districts across the 50 states and one each in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As of January 2025, Congress has authorized 677 permanent district judgeships for these courts.
With this wide geographic dispersion and diversity among the courts and judges, and with all of them claiming authority to be able to issue decisions to halt government operations, the federal community could expect confusion under a Trump administration that is rapidly changing the fact of the federal government.
Here is the latest permutation in a very active legal merry-go-round.
President Trump designated Colleen Duffy Kiko as Chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) on February 11, 2025. Chairman Kiko has served as Member of the FLRA since December 2017 and was previously the FLRA Chairman from December 2017 until January 2021.
On February 10, 2025, a Member of the FLRA, Susan Tsui Grundmann, received a two-sentence email on behalf of President Trump informing her that her position on the FLRA had been terminated.
As noted by the judge in this latest case:
This is one of a series of cases filed in this District (ed. note: and other court districts as well) challenging the President’s unprecedented removal of officers across the federal government without cause, including Members of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board, as well as the Special Counsel.
Some of these cases are outlined in the related cases listed at the end of this article.
On March 12, 2025, DC District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan issued a decision on the case challenging the removal of Grundmann. She concluded:
The removal in this case was unlawful. The Government concedes that Ms. Grundmann’s removal violated the FLRA’s founding statute—a statute that Congress enacted and the President signed into law to revamp federal labor relations in the federal government. The Government’s argument that the statutory removal provision is unconstitutional cannot be reconciled with longstanding Supreme Court precedent that is binding on this Court. And it would encroach on Congress’s authority under Article I of the Constitution. (footnote deleted)
The Judge has issued a permanent injunction so Grundmann is now reinstated to her position at the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Status of President’s Removal of Independent Agency Heads
As noted above, this is not the first case in which President Trump has removed the head of one of the several independent agencies and the removal has been appealed.
Hampton Dellinger was previously removed from his position as the Special Counsel.
On March 1st, another DC District Court, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, issued a decision that President Trump illegally fired special counsel Hampton Dellinger.
On March 5, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a stay which read: “The district court’s March 1, 2025 order be stayed pending further order of the court, except to the extent that order vacates the Temporary Restraining Order entered by the district court on February 12, 2025…..Appellants have satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.”
In other words, this court sided with the Trump administration in allowing the immediate removal of Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel. The court lifted an earlier order blocking the removal of Hampton Dellinger while the court considered the issues for and against his removal. This is not a final decision by the Court of Appeals on the issue, but it is the most recent decision.
In another case, President Trump demoted MSPB Chair Cathy Harris on his first day in office from her role as chair of the MSPB, effectively reducing her influence on the board’s operations.
In this case, on March 4, 2025, District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled in favor of Harris, declaring her removal unlawful and ordering her reinstatement. The court emphasized that the President’s attempt to terminate Harris without cause exceeded his authority under the Civil Service Reform Act.
Summary
There is much confusion now regarding the membership of the various independent agencies that make decisions on appeals by federal employees on human resources issues and by federal employee unions on labor relations issues.
Other cases are inextricably linked to the cases outlined above. Tens of thousands of probationary federal employees have been terminated. Large numbers of federal employees who were involved in DEI activities have been fired. Some agencies are now conducting RIF actions that will or have already resulted in the removal of many federal employees.
The large number of appeals that have been filed or for which filing of appeals has been attempted and would normally be resolved by the MSPB, OSC or the FLRA are on hold or in a legal limbo while cases proceed through various district courts, courts of appeal and the US Supreme Court.
FedSmith will keep readers informed on the progress of the most significant cases and their impact on the federal workforce. Stay tuned for more!
