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

Can a President Remove an Entire Science Board?

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On April 24, every member of the National Science Board (NSB) was abruptly removed via a brief email from the Presidential Personnel Office. No transition plan. No explanation. Jus...

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Supreme Court Case Threatens MSPB Protections

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A Supreme Court case now developing—Harris v. Bessent—may directly affect how federal employees challenge discipline, removals, and other adverse actions. At its core, the dispute ...

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OPM Retirement Backlog: What Feds Should Do Now

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Federal employees nearing retirement are facing a serious processing delay. OPM’s retirement backlog remains above 55,000 pending claims, more than three times higher than a year e...

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HHS RIF Hiring Questions for Federal Employees

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For federal employees affected by last year’s HHS layoffs, the recent discussion about hiring 12,000 people raises a serious legal question: if the agency said positions were elimi...

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Fired for Following a Federal Court Order

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For federal employees, the reported firing of Navy Secretary John Phelan raises a question far bigger than one Pentagon personnel decision: what happens when public servants are pu...

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IRS Refund Delays and Enforcement Cuts Explained

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Federal employees are often asked to reconcile two competing narratives: what agency leadership reports to Congress and what unfolds inside the workplace. The IRS’s recent “home ru...

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USDA Relocations: Legal Risks for Federal Employees

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USDA’s large-scale relocation of thousands of employees raises a practical question: if federal agencies successfully operated remotely during the pandemic, why require cross-count...

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A Year Later: Rebuilding After a Federal Layoff

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NBC News recently reported that only 25% of former federal employees affected by the DOGE cuts have found new jobs. Behind that statistic are public servants who spent months apply...

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DOJ Indictment of SPLC: Informants and Legal Risks

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Federal employees are trained to recognize patterns—and this one is difficult to ignore. The Department of Justice recently announced an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law...

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ICE Hiring Surge Raises Vetting Risks

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ICE’s reported hiring surge should concern more than immigration-policy watchers. According to the transcript, the agency moved to hire 12,000 new officers and special agents after...

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DOJ Indictment of SPLC Raises Concerns

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A recent Department of Justice indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has raised a deeper legal concern that federal employees should not ignore: what happens wh...

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Reasonable Accommodation Delays as Legal Denials

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Federal employees are often told to “be patient” after submitting a reasonable accommodation request. But the law does not grant agencies unlimited time. Under the Rehabilitation A...

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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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