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... A federal judge on Tuesday advanced former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey's lawsuit against the Trump administration, in which she claims she was fired only because her father is outspoken Trump critic and former FBI Director James Comey.

The Trump administration sought to dismiss Comey's complaint, asserting the dispute should be handled through administrative proceedings by the Merit Systems Protection Board, an executive branch agency created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

However, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled Tuesday that Comey's suit was properly filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"The court concludes that Comey's case does not fall within the purview of the CSRA's scheme because she was fired pursuant to Article II of the Constitution, not pursuant to the CSRA itself," he wrote in a 27-page opinion, referring to the president's executive power vested under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.

"Defendants' sole reliance on the Constitution -- rather than the removal provisions of the CSRA -- places Comey's case outside the universe of cases that Congress intended the MSPB to resolve," the judge wrote.

In a footnote to the ruling, Furman opined that whether the U.S. government could properly rely on the Constitution to fire Comey "is the merits question at the heart of this case -- and thus a question for another day." ...