What happened
A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday stayed Julie Beberman's case against the secretary of state while a related Virgin Islands case proceeds through a pending government bid to transfer it to Washington.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said the D.C. case overlaps with Beberman's Virgin Islands petition, which challenges a September 2025 Foreign Service Grievance Board decision issued on remand from the D.C. court and other related Board decisions. Some of those related Board decisions were also challenged in the D.C. case, where the court resolved claims in May 2025.
The stay pauses the D.C. matter while the Virgin Islands court considers the government's transfer motion. The government has also asked Judge Kelly for entry of judgment under Rule 54(b) in the D.C. case, and the judge said the transfer ruling could affect both the proper resolution of that request and whether the government continues to seek it.
Judge Kelly invoked the court's inherent authority to control its docket and said a stay pending the Virgin Islands transfer decision was a "reasonable response" to the overlap between the two actions. He also said the risk of hardship was reduced because the same party, the government, filed both the Rule 54(b) motion in D.C. and the transfer motion in the Virgin Islands.
The order stays the D.C. case until further court action. The parties must file a joint status report within seven days after the Virgin Islands court decides the transfer motion.