The Department of Justice’s firing of a daughter of former FBI Director James Comey was illegal, a U.S. judge ruled on Oct. 26.

The firing of Maurene Comey “was not authorized by any statute,” Judge Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said in a 55-page opinion.

A department spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that “the department disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”

The judgment does not address Maurene Comey’s First Amendment claim, and an appeal cannot be filed until that aspect is addressed, the spokesperson said.

“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” Comey’s lawyers told The Epoch Times via email.

“As the court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power ‘would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.’

“This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the president is not above the law.”

An official informed Comey in July that she was being terminated “pursuant to Article II of the Constitution,” prompting the lawsuit.

The suit states that the termination was illegal because it was “without cause, without advance notice, and without any opportunity to contest it.”

Article II vests executive power in the president, says the president must see that laws are faithfully executed, and provides that two types of officers can assist him.

Justice officials said the termination, which was authorized by the attorney general at the time, was legal under the Civil Service Reform Act.

That act says in part that assistant U.S. attorneys are subject to removal by the attorney general.

The government also told the court that laws that limit the firing of such prosecutors unconstitutionally intrude on the president’s power vested by Article II.

Furman rejected the position, siding with Comey, who had worked as a federal prosecutor for nearly 10 years before being fired.

The law authorizes the attorney general to remove assistant U.S. attorneys, but Congress also allows removals only “for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service,” the judge said.

Since the termination letter did not cite performance issues, and Comey was not given advance notice of the firing, it was illegal, according to the ruling.

The argument that the Constitution bars Congress from imposing conditions on the removal of assistant U.S. attorneys “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent, rooted in the text of the Appointments Clause, holding that Congress may generally restrict the removal of ‘inferior officers,’” the judge also wrote.