Maurene Comey can continue fighting her firing as a federal prosecutor in federal district court after a judge rejected the Justice Department’s bid to route the dispute into a different review process. In a written ruling issued April 28, Judge Jesse M. Furman said the government’s stated rationale for her removal puts her case outside the usual channels for employment disputes involving federal workers.
The judge in Manhattan, Furman rejected an argument raised by the Justice Department that the complaint about Comey’s dismissal last year should not be heard by a district court. Instead, the Justice Department had argued for treatment through an administrative panel, a path that typically governs many types of federal employment challenges that arise under federal personnel frameworks.
In his decision, Furman said the only reason provided for Maurene Comey’s firing was tied to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which vests “executive power” in the president. The judge said that reason places the case outside the process that channels many, if not most, categories of disputes between federal employers and employees to avenues of administrative and judicial review beyond district courts.
Maurene Comey’s lawyers welcomed the ruling. In a statement, attorneys Ellen Blain and Nicole Gueron said they were “thrilled” with Furman’s decision because their client’s “lawless, unconstitutional termination” should be litigated in federal court, where they said constitutional separation-of-powers questions are commonly decided.
The lawsuit contends that Maurene Comey was improperly removed, either solely or substantially, because of her father—former FBI Director James Comey—or because of a perceived political affiliation or beliefs. Furman also described her record in the courtroom, writing that she “was, by all accounts, an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney” who, during nearly a decade as a prosecutor, handled some of the country’s highest-profile cases and earned high accolades from supervisors and peers.
Furman’s ruling came the same day that James Comey was indicted again, according to the reporting, in an investigation involving a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against Trump. James Comey’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Justice Department did not immediately comment on Furman’s ruling.
The decision also followed earlier litigation steps that shaped the case. During oral arguments in December, Furman refused to allow Comey to immediately gather evidence aimed at identifying who ordered her firing and how it happened, saying the government had made serious arguments that her firing first needed to be considered by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board. Furman then set a May 28 hearing for an initial pretrial conference in the civil case.