United States Merit Systems Protection Board

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is an independent quasi-judicial agency established in 1979 to protect federal merit systems against partisan political and other prohibited personnel practices and to ensure adequate protection for federal employees against abuses by agency management.

When an employee of most Executive Branch agencies is separated from their position or suspended for more than 14 days, they can request that MSPB conduct a hearing into the matter by submitting an appeal, generally within 30 days. In that hearing, the agency will have to prove that the action was warranted and the employee may present evidence that it was not. An MSPB decision is binding unless set aside on appeal to federal court. Along with the Office of Personnel Management and the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the MSPB is a successor agency of the United States Civil Service Commission.

The board had no quorum for the entire first Trump administration, with the last member retiring at the end of February 2019. A quorum resumed on March 4, 2022, upon the swearing in of Raymond Limon and Tristan Leavitt.

In 2025, the chair of the MSPB was fired by the second Trump administration, then sued and was reinstated by court order, then ordered the restoration of 5,600 employees fired during the 2025 United States federal mass layoffs. The reinstatement was stayed by an appeals court in March 2025.