Hecker Fink Files Amicus Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board Professional Association in Jackler v. DOJ

On April 14, 2026, Hecker Fink LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board Professional Association in Jackler v. DOJ, Docket No. 26-01575 (Fed. Cir. Mar 26, 2026), where two immigration judges are challenging the federal government’s attempts to terminate them without cause. The Merit Systems Protection Board Professional Association is the union of administrative judges of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

After the immigration judges were fired, the MSPB Board ruled that the immigration judges’ statutory civil service protections are unconstitutional. Hecker Fink’s amicus brief, which can be read here, explains why affirming that decision threatens to harm the civil service. The brief argues that civil service protections for immigration judges and other federal employees are not unconstitutional and explains that ruling otherwise would be inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent as well as the system of civil service protections enacted by Congress and signed into law by multiple Presidents. The brief argues that the Court should hear the case now, en banc, to remove the shadow of uncertainty that the MSPB Board’s decision has cast on the civil service protections for a broad swath of the federal workforce.

The Hecker Fink team includes Trisha Anderson, Martin Totaro, Benjamin Stern, David Olin, Jessy Jimenez, and Tara Davoodi.