Kim Anne Farrington v. Department of Transportation
The petition for a writ of certiorari will present three questions:
1. Whether Federal Circuit Rule 36(a) affirmances without opinion in Merit Systems Protection Board cases unconstitutionally delegate Article III judicial power to the executive branch in violation of the separation of powers. The President has asserted his Article II authority to remove MSPB members without cause, hence the MSPB is under executive control. See, Trump v. Wilcox, 145 S. Ct. 1415, 1416 (2025) ("The stay reflects our judgment that the Government is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power.")
Whether Federal Circuit Rule 36(a) affirmances without opinion violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of procedural due process by denying aggrieved federal employees meaningful judicial review of agency statutory interpretations.
Whether the MSPB and the circuit judges below erred as a matter of law in upholding the MSPB's conclusion that 5 U.S.C. § 2302(f)(2) allows the executive branch to exclude Petitioner from standard whistleblower protections, despite clear evidence that her disclosures were made outside the "normal course" of her duties.
Whether Federal Circuit Rule 36(a) affirmances without opinion in Merit Systems Protection Board cases unconstitutionally violate Article III judicial power and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of meaningful judicial review