This event is co-sponsored by the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy and Cardozo student organizations including the Cardozo Chapter of the American Constitution Society, the Cardozo Labor and Employment Law Society, and Cardozo OUTlaw.

On February 3, 2026, Cathy Harris will join her attorney, Nathaniel Zelinksy, at Cardozo to discuss her lawsuit against Trump and his administration challenging her firing her as a member of the National Merit System Protection Board. This conversation will be moderated by Professor Jessica Roth.

Until she was fired in February 2025, Cathy Harris was a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent, quasi-judicial agency that works to ensure federal employees are protected against abuses by agency management. The MSPB hears federal employees' appeals of personnel actions taken by the government, including appeals by line prosecutors at the Department of Justice and other federal agencies. Harris' term was not set to expire until 2028. Trump fired her despite a federal law that dictates board members can only be fired for cause, such as inefficiency, malfeasance or neglect of duty. In May 2025, the Supreme Court allowed her firing to stand while litigation continues. A decisive legal victory for Trump in Harris' case could bring monumental change to government, overturn a century of practice and precedent on the extent of the President’s authority over staffing within the executive branch, and invalidate the structure of numerous agencies.

The MSPB was created by Congress as part of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, reflecting a centuries-long effort to combat patronage in federal employment. The Board adjudicates federal employee appeals, including claims of political discrimination and whistleblower retaliation. Prior to serving as a board member, Harris spent more than 20 years at a law firm representing both federal employees and federal agencies before the board.

Panelists:

Cathy Harris was nominated on January 4, 2022, by President Joseph R. Biden to serve as a Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Ms. Harris was confirmed by the Senate on May 25, 2022, and sworn into her duties as a member of the Board on June 1, 2022. She was designated Vice Chairman on June 6, 2022, and served as the Acting Chairman. On March 6, 2024, the Senate confirmed Ms. Harris as Chairman, and she was sworn in on March 14, 2024. Prior to that Ms. Harris was co-manager of the firm of Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, PLLC, in Washington, DC. She served as the Chair of the firm's Sexual Harassment and LGBT Practice sections. Ms. Harris has practiced employment law, including before the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, for over two decades. She has extensive experience in the litigation and settlement of federal sector employment class actions and represented individual employees and federal agencies. Ms. Harris graduated from the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC with honors in 1997, where she was a member and editor on the George Washington Law Review. She received the Michael D. Cooley award for most successfully maintaining her compassion, vitality, and humanity during law school and was elected to give the salutatory address at commencement. Ms. Harris received her undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1994. Prior to joining Kator, Parks, Weiser & Harris, PLLC, she was an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office. Ms. Harris also served as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University Law School from 2001 to 2004.

Nathaniel Zelinsky is a senior counsel and member of the Washington Litigation Group’s steering committee. He is an appellate lawyer who has handled high stakes cases involving major constitutional questions and multibillion dollar disputes, and has argued at every level of the federal judiciary, including before the Supreme Court. Mr. Zelinsky represents Cathy Harris in Harris v. Bessent, a case challenging President Trump’s unlawful attempt to terminate a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. He argued the case for Harris in the District Court, at the stay stage before the D.C. Circuit, and at the merits panel before the D.C. Circuit. From 2020-2023, Mr. Zelinsky served as a special prosecutor for the State of Minnesota in the criminal prosecutions of the four former police officers charged in connection with the death of George Floyd. During those proceedings, he handled key legal issues for the prosecution and successfully defended the conviction of Derek Chauvin on appeal. Mr. Zelinsky clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He received his B.A. and J.D. from Yale University, and an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Paul Mellon Fellow.

Jessica Roth is a Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law, where she is the co-director of the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law. Previously she was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. She is a scholar of criminal law, evidence, and legal ethics. Professor Roth is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Denise Cote of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and then for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.