A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration illegally fired former Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans last year when the agency terminated her employment over her approval of grant funding for migrant hotels.
Comans sued the Trump administration in March 2025, arguing that she was “unlawfully terminated” from her role without due process or the opportunity to “appropriately respond” to her termination. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, sided with Comans.
Nachmanoff said the Supreme Court has set a precedent that “the president does not have plenary power to remove inferior officers” in his ruling, according to Politico.
Comans’s lawyer in the case, Mark Zaid, celebrated Nachmanoff’s ruling on X, noting that the judge ordered a “name-clearing” hearing for the former FEMA official. The judge did not, however, order that Comans be restored to her position or the agency, according to the outlet.
“Incredible win just now before EDVA in lawsuit against President Trump for former FEMA CFO Mary Comans. 1st case deciding no Article II authority to terminate officers w/o due process,” Zaid posted on X.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
DHS officials fired Comans from FEMA as part of a sweep of four employees they said were connected to the approval of $59 million in grant money sent to New York City to help cover the costs of housing illegal immigrants in luxury hotels in Manhattan.
“Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants,” former DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the Washington Examiner at the time. “Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist.”
When Comans filed the lawsuit, she alleged in an interview with CBS News that she was terminated “illegally … for doing exactly what I was directed to do by the Trump political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security and at the DOGE.”
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She said in the interview that after she approved the funds, she saw a social media post from then-Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk ridiculing the payment as a violation of the law, so she reversed the grant payments. Comans alleged that despite being assured by management her job was safe, she was fired the next day.
According to Politico, the format for Comans’s “name-clearing” hearing has not yet been decided.