Berry v. Conyers

The majority, reversing the Merit Systems Protection Board (“Board”), holds that hundreds of thousands of federal employees — designated as holding national security positions — do not have the right to appeal the merits of adverse actions to the Board simply because the Department of Defense has decided that such appeals should not be allowed.

The majority reaches this conclusion even though the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (“CSRA”), 5 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq., unquestionably gives these employees the right to appeal the merits of adverse agency personnel actions to the Board, and Congress…