A former federal immigration judge is suing Attorney General Pamela Bondi and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging she was abruptly fired because she is a woman, the U.S.-born daughter of Lebanese immigrants with dual citizenship, and a Democrat who once ran for local judicial office.
Tania Nemer, who served in Cleveland, was, was pulled from the bench mid-hearing on February 5, 2025—just 15 days after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration and the day Bondi formally took control of the department.
According to the complaint, she was still in her two-year probationary period when court security interrupted her docket, informed her she was terminated effective immediately, and escorted her out of the federal building in front of attorneys and asylum-seekers waiting for their cases.Her direct supervisor, the complaint states, told her privately that she was “one of his best” judges and that he had no idea why she was being let go.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Nemer claims the Justice Department later cited long-resolved traffic tickets from the early 2000s and a minor local tax issue as the official reasons—issues she says were fully disclosed during her hiring process and never previously raised as concerns.The real motives, she alleges, were her gender, her Lebanese heritage and dual citizenship, and her 2019 Democratic campaign for a seat on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
The case directly challenges the Trump administration’s sweeping claim that the president has a constitutional right to dismiss federal workers for discriminatory reasons—a theory that could upend civil rights protections for millions of government employees if courts allow it to stand.
“This administration is arguing that Title VII simply doesn’t apply to certain federal employees because the president can fire them at will,” said Nemer’s attorney, Nathaniel Zelinsky. “If that holds, the government could legally fire someone for being a woman, for their religion, or for their political beliefs.
That cannot be the law.”Nemer is one of at least 50 immigration judges removed since January in what the White House describes as an efficiency drive to speed deportations and clear massive case backlogs.
Critics call it a politically motivated purge.The Justice Department declined to comment on pending litigation but repeated its position that immigration judges serve at the pleasure of the attorney general.
Legal experts say the lawsuit is almost certain to reach higher courts and could force the Supreme Court to decide whether anti-discrimination statutes still bind the executive branch when it exercises removal powers—a question with implications far beyond the immigration courts.
Nemer, a former federal prosecutor, says she is fighting for reinstatement and for the principle that no public servant should lose their job because of who they are or how they vote.
Signpost News is an Imphal-based media house that focuses on delivering news and views from Northeast India and beyond.