# Douglas Factors The **Douglas factors** are the twelve considerations the [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] set out in *Douglas v. Veterans Administration*, 5 M.S.P.R. 280 (1981), for testing whether the penalty an agency chose for sustained misconduct — most consequentially, removal — was reasonable. They include the nature and seriousness of the offense, the employee's job level and type of employment, past disciplinary and work record, length of service, the effect on the employee's ability to perform, consistency with the penalty imposed on others for like offenses, consistency with any applicable table of penalties, the notoriety of the offense, the clarity of the notice the employee had of the rule, the employee's potential for rehabilitation, mitigating circumstances, and the adequacy of alternative sanctions. For forty-five years the factors functioned as a mandatory checklist: an agency that failed to show it had weighed them risked having a removal mitigated even where the charged conduct was proven. **That status ended on 5 October 2026.** An MSPB final rule, *Determining the Appropriate Penalty for Federal Employees Charged With Misconduct*, 91 FR 56549 (3 September 2026), amended 5 CFR 1201.56 so that where the Board sustains the charge it asks only whether the penalty is "within the tolerable limits of reasonableness in light of the totality of the circumstances," and codified the *Lachance v. Devall* framework governing when the Board sustains, mitigates to the maximum reasonable penalty, or returns the matter to the agency. The rule applies to appeals **filed** on or after 5 October 2026; appeals pending on that date are decided under the prior framework. The Board's position is that the *Douglas* considerations remain relevant wherever the record makes them material — what ended is their status as a required analysis. This is a stub — expand with the twelve factors individually, the mitigation case law built on them, the comment record on the 2026 rule, and the first decisions issued under the totality test. See [[How a Federal Employee Is Fired]] for where the penalty check sits in the removal process. ## See also - [[How a Federal Employee Is Fired]] - [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] - [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] - [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]]