Fired immigration judges appeal ruling
Two fired immigration judges have appealed a labor‑board ruling that backed the Attorney General’s authority to terminate them, a case that could influence judicial independence and long‑term procedural dynamics in removal courts. The appeal could reverberate through removal-defense practice depending on its outcome. (reuters.com)
Two former DOJ immigration judges, Assistant Chief Immigration Judges Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 23, 2026, asking the court to overturn an MSPB order that upheld their February 2025 terminations. (federalnewsnetwork.com) The Merit Systems Protection Board’s March 20, 2026 decision held that Article II of the Constitution allows the Attorney General to remove immigration judges as “inferior officers” and concluded MSPB lacks jurisdiction to provide the Title 5 pre‑termination remedies the judges sought. (federalnewsnetwork.com) MSPB’s March 20 order reversed an earlier administrative‑judge ruling from August 2025 that had ordered Jackler and Jaroch reinstated and had applied statutory pre‑termination procedures under 5 U.S.C. § 7513(b). (federalnewsnetwork.com) The appellants are represented by the Washington Litigation Group; senior counsel Nathaniel Zelinsky characterized the board’s ruling as contrary to “more than a century of binding Supreme Court precedent” and framed the appeal as a defense of civil‑service protections. (federalnewsnetwork.com) MSPB’s opinion was issued by the board’s two sitting members, both Republicans, and the board treated the dispute as a constitutional removal‑power question rather than an ordinary employee‑discipline matter, sending a novel legal issue to the Federal Circuit for initial appellate review. (federalnewsnetwork.com) The petition lands amid a broader wave of immigration‑court removals that began in February 2025 and has been reported as involving dozens to over a hundred judges, a factual backdrop the appellants cite to underline the wider impact of the Federal Circuit’s likely decision. (news.bloomberglaw.com)
