"Judge Jesse Furman ordered that Comey, who is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, be retroactively reinstated to her job as an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York.

The judge also ordered that she receive back pay from July 16 through December 20, 2025, when he inferred that Comey accepted another job, in the ruling in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Furman, in his ruling for Maurene Comey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, rejected the DOJ's arguments that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi could remove a federal prosecutor "at will" and without cause, and that current AG Todd Blanche could ratify that act after the fact.

Furman also rejected the DOJ's argument that even if the Civil Service Reform Act requires removal of a prosecutor for cause, an attorney general's firing of her constituted an implicit determination that she was removed "for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service."

"The Court need not dwell long on Defendants' second statutory argument justifying
Comey's removal," Furman said, referring to that claim. "That is because the argument borders on frivolous."

The judge said the DOJ all but admitted that its argument that the attorney general had power to fire Comey under Article II of the Constitution sought "to overturn nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent."

"This Court, however, is bound to follow the Supreme Court's precedents unless and until the Supreme Court overturns them," Furman wrote."