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Shaun Southworth leading a federal employment training session with members of the Southworth PC team
 

A Notice of Proposed Removal Is Not a Firing: It Starts a 30-Day Clock

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A notice of proposed removal is not a firing. It is a clock starting — and the distance between those two things is where most of your leverage lives.

Proposed means proposed. You...

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Could Jackler v. DOJ Weaken Civil Service Rights?

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An agricultural commodity grader and a federal immigration judge may seem to have little in common. Yet a new congressional brief in Jackler v. Department of Justice argues that th...

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Veterans’ Preference Is Not a Federal Hiring Flaw

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A FedRAMP hiring controversy has exposed a familiar problem in federal workforce debates: blaming the legal protection instead of examining how the hiring process was designed and ...

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OPM's New Suitability Rule, and Why One Outlet Called It "Nixonian"

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OPM's new suitability rule lets the agency order the removal of a sitting federal employee for conduct that happened after they were hired — and Government Executive's headline for...

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Douglas Factors Proposal and Federal Discipline

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For more than forty years, federal employees have had a structured way to challenge discipline that feels excessive, inconsistent, or unsupported. That structure comes from the Dou...

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OPM's New Suitability Rule Lets Agencies Bar Federal Employees for Up to Three Years

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Starting July 30, 2026, federal agencies will have a new way to remove employees already on the job — one built for screening applicants, not managing an existing workforce. The Of...

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Can the Executive Branch Dismantle a Department Congress Created?

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Federal employees know the difference between a policy shift and an institutional dismantling. The reported transfer of two core Education Department functions—the Office for Civil...

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Jackler v. DOJ and MSPB Appeal Rights

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Federal employees should be watching Jackler v. Department of Justice closely. The case involves two career immigration judges, Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, who were removed f...

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Political Favoritism and Federal Employee Rights

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Federal employees are trained to serve the public without regard to party, ideology, or political preference. That is why reports of disaster funding disparities between Democratic...

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Public Doubts Federal Cuts Improved Efficiency

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Federal employees have spent the past year absorbing reductions, reorganizations, removals, and shifting workplace expectations—all often justified in the name of making government...

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Probationary Firings and Federal Appeal Rights

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For probationary federal employees, the past year has carried an unmistakable message: early-career service can feel precarious even when the government says it wants to recruit ne...

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Strong Federal Employee Defense Is Built Before the Hearing

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When a federal employee receives a proposed removal, the case can feel deeply personal and immediately overwhelming. The agency file may include a proposed removal, decision letter...

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About the people behind the work

Shaun Southworth & Lydia Taylor

Meet the federal employment attorneys behind this public-education work and the podcast Civil Rights for Civil Servants.

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