Judge Jesse M. Furman ruled Tuesday that Maurene Comey’s wrongful termination claims belong in federal court, clearing the way for her challenge to move ahead outside the administrative process the government wanted to use. Furman said the sole reason given for her firing last year was Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which vests executive power in the president.
That ruling matters because the judge said the stated reason takes the case outside the process that channels many disputes between federal employers and employees to administrative and judicial review outside district courts. The Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Comey sued after her dismissal, saying she was removed solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey or because of her perceived political affiliation or beliefs. In her September lawsuit, she said the firing was retribution because her father is a Trump foe. Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in 2017.
Furman had already signaled caution in December, when he refused to let Comey immediately gather evidence to learn who ordered her firing and how it transpired. He also said then that the government had made serious arguments that the dispute should first be considered by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.
Comey’s case is not playing out in a vacuum. She had led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs and won a conviction on prostitution-related charges before her dismissal last year, a detail that gives her lawsuit added public weight but does not answer the legal question now before the court. Furman set a May 28 hearing for an initial pretrial conference in the civil case, the next step in a fight that will now be decided in district court.
The ruling narrows the government’s first line of defense and moves the dispute into the forum Comey wanted. The next question is no longer where her claims belong; it is how much of the firing process and the reasoning behind it will come out when the case is heard on the merits.
