Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 1 Filed: 07/07/2023
NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
JOHN S. EDWARDS,
Petitioner
v.
MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD,
Respondent
______________________
2022-1967
______________________
Petition for review of the Merit Systems Protection
Board in No. DC-1221-16-0227-W-1.
______________________
Decided: July 7, 2023
______________________
PETER BROIDA, Arlington, VA, argued for petitioner.
JEFFREY GAUGER, Office of General Counsel, United
States Merit Systems Protection Board, Washington, DC,
argued for respondent. Also represented by ALLISON JANE
BOYLE, KATHERINE MICHELLE SMITH.
______________________
Before PROST, CHEN, and CUNNINGHAM, Circuit Judges.
PROST, Circuit Judge.
Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 2 Filed: 07/07/2023
2 EDWARDS v. MSPB
John S. Edwards appeals from a Merit Systems Protec-
tion Board (“Board”) decision dismissing his individual
right of action (“IRA”) appeal under the Whistleblower Pro-
tection Act for lack of jurisdiction. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
Mr. Edwards worked at the Department of Labor
(“DOL”) as a director in the Office of Information Systems
and Technology (“OIST”). Mr. Edwards alleged that two
OIST supervisors were discriminating against Black em-
ployees. In July 2015, he informed those supervisors of his
observations. App’x 83. 1 Mr. Edwards then filed, on Octo-
ber 16, 2015, an informal complaint with DOL’s Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity (“EEO”) Office detailing his
allegations of racial discrimination. App’x 34–37. On Oc-
tober 27, 2015, one of the supervisors Mr. Edwards accused
of discrimination reassigned him to a position with dimin-
ished responsibilities. App’x 86. According to Mr. Ed-
wards, this supervisor stated that she was reassigning him
“because of [his] EEO complaint.” Id. A few days later, Mr.
Edwards filed another complaint, this time with the Office
of Special Counsel (“OSC”). App’x 38–59. This complaint
repeated Mr. Edwards’s allegations of discrimination in
OIST and also alleged retaliation against him for “re-
port[ing those] EEO violations.” App’x 42. The OSC closed
the investigation after it determined that Mr. Edwards’s
allegations “are more appropriately resolved” through the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”).
App’x 67, 69.
Mr. Edwards then filed an IRA appeal with the Board,
which the Board dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Mr. Ed-
wards appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.
§ 1295(a)(9). See Young v. MSPB, 961 F.3d 1323, 1327–28
1 “App’x” refers to the appendix attached to Mr. Ed-
wards’s principal brief.
Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 3 Filed: 07/07/2023
EDWARDS v. MSPB 3
(Fed. Cir. 2020) (holding that IRA appeals do not constitute
“mixed cases” under Perry v. MSPB, 582 U.S. 420 (2017),
even where the underlying allegations relate to retaliation
for exercising a Title VII right).
DISCUSSION
“We review de novo whether the Board has jurisdiction
over an appeal.” Smolinski v. MSPB, 23 F.4th 1345, 1350
(Fed. Cir. 2022). For the Board to have jurisdiction over an
IRA appeal, the appellant must, among other things, make
nonfrivolous allegations that he made a protected disclo-
sure under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(8) or engaged in a protected
activity under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(9)(A)(i) or (b)(9)(B)–(D). 5
U.S.C. § 1221(a); Smolinski, 23 F.4th at 1350. Section
1221(a) plainly excludes activities under
§ 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii)—“the exercise of any appeal, complaint,
or grievance right . . . other than with regard to remedying
a violation of [§ 2302(b)(8)]”—from IRA jurisdiction.
In this case, the Board determined it lacked jurisdic-
tion because Mr. Edwards’s alleged protected activity falls
under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii). The Board reasoned
that—under Young and Spruill—Mr. Edwards’s allega-
tions of EEO violations and retaliation for reporting them
“may not be raised in an IRA appeal[] because IRA appeals
are limited to alleged violations of whistleblower protection
statutes” and reporting EEO violations “[is] a nonwhistle-
blowing” activity. Edwards v. DOL, No. DC-1221-16-0227-
W-1, 2022 WL 1438663, at *4 (M.S.P.B. May 5, 2022) (first
citing Spruill v. MSPB, 978 F.2d 679, 680–81, 690–92 (Fed.
Cir. 1992); then quoting Serrao v. MSPB, 95 F.3d 1569,
1575 (Fed. Cir. 1996); and then citing Young, 961 F.3d at
1327–28).
On appeal, Mr. Edwards argues that Young and
Spruill are distinguishable or otherwise do not govern the
outcome of this case. We disagree.
Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 4 Filed: 07/07/2023
4 EDWARDS v. MSPB
As an initial matter, Mr. Edwards agrees that Young
and Spruill dictate that filing a formal EEO complaint can-
not supply the Board with IRA jurisdiction because a for-
mal EEO complaint falls under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii).
Oral Arg. at 0:27–45, 10:21–29. 2 However, Mr. Edwards
maintains that this case is different because he filed an in-
formal EEO complaint. See Pet’r’s Br. 15–16. We are not
persuaded. Although the appellants in Young and Spruill
did file formal EEO complaints, we did not elevate the form
of such complaints over their substance. See Young, 961
F.3d at 1329–30; Spruill, 978 F.2d at 690–92. As Young
explains, it’s an appellant’s “exercis[e of] a Title VII right”
that pushes a case into the realm of § 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii) and
thus deprives the Board of IRA jurisdiction. Young,
961 F.3d at 1329. And there’s no dispute here that Mr. Ed-
wards exercised Title VII rights when he filed his informal
EEO complaint alleging racial discrimination in OIST.
Mr. Edwards also asserts that his verbal complaints to
his supervisors permit his allegations of retaliation for re-
porting racial discrimination to proceed through the Board
via an IRA appeal. According to Mr. Edwards, even if his
informal EEO complaint falls under § 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii), his
disclosure of the same allegations to his supervisors falls
under § 2302(b)(8). Pet’r’s Br. 18–22; see also Oral Arg. at
8:00–32 (Mr. Edwards’s counsel arguing that “there is
some duplication”). But Mr. Edwards’s disclosures to his
supervisors were of the same substance as his EEO com-
plaint. Per Young, this EEO complaint falls under
§ 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii)—i.e., is “other than with regard to rem-
edying a violation of” § 2302(b)(8). We don’t see how claims
of retaliation by the same actors for disclosing verbally the
same alleged violation later memorialized in an EEO com-
plaint can proceed separately. Spruill reinforces this
2 No. 22-1967, https://oralarguments.cafc.uscourts
.gov/default.aspx?fl=22-1967_06092023.mp3.
Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 5 Filed: 07/07/2023
EDWARDS v. MSPB 5
understanding of the interplay between § 2302(b)(8) and
§ 2302(b)(9)(A)(ii). Spruill counsels that appellants cannot
maintain simultaneous Board and EEOC jurisdiction to re-
solve the same alleged violations. Otherwise, the Board
and EEOC would “duplicat[e]” effort to resolve the same
dispute and thereby waste “governmental resources” and
potentially generate “conflicting procedures or outcomes.”
Spruill, 978 F.2d at 691–92.
Mr. Edwards argues that this court’s recent Smolinski
decision allows duplicative Board and EEOC proceedings
to resolve alleged retaliation for disclosing Title VII viola-
tions. Pet’r’s Br. 16–22. Not so. Smolinski is not instruc-
tive here because it did not involve the exercise of a Title
VII right. In Smolinski, Dr. Smolinski, a federal employee,
alleged retaliation for testifying about another federal em-
ployee’s sexual harassment of Dr. Smolinski’s wife, who
was not a federal employee. See Smolinski, 23 F.4th at
1351. And while sexual harassment is a form of sex dis-
crimination that Title VII covers, Title VII protection did
not play a role in Smolinski because the alleged discrimi-
nation wasn’t of one federal employee against another; it
was of one federal employee against a non-employee. See
Oral Arg. at 18:51–20:10; cf. 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(1) (prohib-
iting employees from discriminating “against any employee
or applicant for employment” (emphasis added)). Thus, the
IRA jurisdiction under § 2302(b)(8) in Smolinski was based
on allegations of “abuses of authority,” not based on allega-
tions that would have also fallen under Title VII or
§ 2302(b)(1).
Since Mr. Edwards seeks review of claims of retaliation
for coming forward with allegations of Title VII violations,
the Board lacks IRA jurisdiction, and jurisdiction instead
lies exclusively with the EEOC.
Case: 22-1967 Document: 32 Page: 6 Filed: 07/07/2023
6 EDWARDS v. MSPB
CONCLUSION
We have considered Mr. Edwards’s remaining argu-
ments and find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing rea-
sons, we affirm.
AFFIRMED
COSTS
No costs.