Court Reinstates Board Members Fired by Trump

Two board members fired by President Trump can go back to their jobs, a split appeals court ruled Monday ahead of a likely Supreme Court showdown on the president's power over independent agencies, per the AP. An appeals court in the nation's capital handed down the 7-4 decision in lawsuits brought by two women separately fired from agencies that both deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for a federal workforce Trump is aiming to drastically downsize. The order relies largely on a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey's Executor, which found that presidents can't fire independent board members without cause.

But the ruling has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue it wrongly curtails the president's power, and experts say the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court may be poised to overturn it. The ruling reverses, at least for now, a judgment from a three-judge panel from the same US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Former President Biden nominated both of the fired board members. Cathy Harris is from the Merit Systems Protection Board, which reviews disputes from federal workers and could be a stumbling block as the Trump administration seeks to carry out a dramatic downsizing. Gwynne Wilcox has served on the National Labor Relations Board, which resolves hundreds of unfair labor practice cases every year. The five-member board lacked a quorum after Wilcox's removal.

Government lawyers have argued that Trump can remove both board members. In Wilcox's case, they said reinstatement "works a grave harm to the separation of powers and undermines the President's ability to exercise his authority under the Constitution. They also argued that MSPB members like Harris are removable "at will" by the president. Wilcox's attorneys said Trump couldn't fire her without notice, a hearing, or identifying any "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office" on her part. They argued that the administration's "only path to victory" is to persuade the US Supreme Court to "adopt a more expansive view of presidential power." (More US Court of Appeals stories.)