Opinion ID: 535288
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Language and Structure of the CSRA Regarding Judicial Review of Personnel Actions

Text: 9 The CSRA establishes two separate procedures for review of agency actions taken against preference eligible employees such as Ryon. Which of the two procedures is followed depends upon whether the action taken is relatively severe, and hence classified as an adverse action, or falls into the more benign category of personnel action. Preference eligible civil service employees are protected from personnel actions, such as the reassignment in this case, only if such actions are shown to have been actuated by one of the specific improper motives listed in 5 U.S.C. Sec. 2302(b)(1), and hence to constitute a prohibited personnel practice. An employee alleging a prohibited personnel practice, is accorded no right to appeal the action directly to the MSPB. Instead, the employee may petition the OSC to investigate his claim. 2 The OSC must then investigate the allegations, see 5 U.S.C. Sec. 1206(a)(1), 5 C.F.R. Secs. 1250-61 (OSC regulations), and, if it finds them meritorious, issue a report including findings and recommendations of corrective action to the agency taking the contested measures. If the agency then fails to take the recommended action, the OSC may, in its discretion, request the MSPB to order corrective action. See 5 U.S.C. Sec. 1206(c)(1)(A) and (B). 10 The text of the CSRA providing for review of personnel actions, including the reassignment in this case, contains no mention whatsoever of judicial review. In the context of the detailed and comprehensive provisions of the CSRA in this area, we find this omission particularly telling. It is hard to imagine that such an intricate statutory scheme was intended as a mere alternative to direct review in the federal courts, especially where Congress has failed to provide even the slightest hint to that effect in the statute itself. 11 This plain reading of the CSRA's text controlling review of reassignments where marital status discrimination is alleged is reinforced by an overview of the structure the Act sets up for review of the two categories of agency action affecting employees. Congress designated more serious agency actions including removal, reduction in pay or grade, or suspensions for more than 14 days, as adverse actions under 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7512, and specified that they be taken only where the government could demonstrate that the employee at whom they were directed had engaged in misconduct, and that the action taken would promote the efficiency of the service. 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7513; see, e.g., Dominguez v. Department of Air Force, 803 F.2d 680 (Fed.Cir.1986). Where these relatively serious sanctions are invoked, the CSRA provides the right to appeal directly to the MSPB, see 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7513(d), 5 U.S.C. Sec. 4303, 5 U.S.C. Secs. 7501-7701, and judicial review of the MSPB decision in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 7703(b)(1). 12 An understanding of the structure of the CSRA's provisions for judicial review of both categories of agency employment action yields greater insight into Congress' specific intentions regarding review of personnel actions. First, we note that the existence of provisions in the CSRA for eventual judicial review of more serious adverse actions strongly evinces that Congress did not simply assume, as plaintiff contends, that such review would be available for all agency actions under pre-existing federal statutes, such as the APA or the Mandamus Act. 13 Second, when the review provisions for adverse actions are juxtaposed with Congress' conspicuous failure to provide for such review of personnel actions, by far the most compelling inference is that Congress chose as a matter of policy to accord greater process to those employees alleging a more serious deprivation of right. In this regard, we also take note of the explicit provisions in the CSRA to the effect that appeals of adverse actions in the federal courts be available only from decisions of the MSPB and not directly from agency disposition. Were we to grant plaintiff's request for direct review of his allegation of a prohibited personnel practice in federal district court, we would allow him more immediate access to the courts than the CSRA provides to those seeking review of an adverse action. In so doing, we would turn the review structure of the CSRA on its head. We agree with the conclusion of the District of Columbia Circuit that 14 the exhaustive remedial scheme of the CSRA would be impermissibly frustrated by permitting, for lesser personnel actions not involving constitutional claims, an access to the courts more immediate and direct than the statute provides with regard to major adverse actions. 15 Carducci v. Regan, 714 F.2d at 174. 16 Finally, it is significant that, by its terms, the CSRA grants employees the right to appeal adverse actions only to the Federal Circuit. The limitation is consistent with Congress' intention that the haphazard jurisdictional arrangement preceding the CSRA, which resulted in numerous splits among the circuits, should give way to one coherent body of law in the area of civil service employee rights. Limiting the appeal of adverse actions to the Federal Circuit would serve no apparent purpose if litigants could nevertheless appeal personnel actions to district courts in each of the circuits under the various jurisdictional statutes predating the CSRA. All of these aspects of the structure of the CSRA indicate that its review provisions for personnel actions were intended to be exclusive.