Kloeckner v. Solis, No. 11-184; U.S. Supreme Court; opinion by Kagan, J.; decided December 10, 2012. On certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 permits a federal employee subjected to a particularly serious personnel action such as a discharge or demotion to appeal her agency’s decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Such an appeal may allege that the agency had insufficient cause for taking the action under the CSRA itself; but the appeal may also or instead charge the agency with discrimination prohibited by a federal statute. See 5 U.S.C. § 7702(a)(1). When an employee alleges that a personnel action appealable to the MSPB was based on discrimination, her case is known as a “mixed case.” See 29 CFR § 1614.302. Mixed cases are governed by special procedures set out in the CSRA and regulations of the MSPB and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
