Supreme Court allows Trump’s firings of independent agency board members
to take effect, for now
[April 10, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Trump
administration to oust two board members who oversee independent
agencies, for now. The action seems to signal the court's support for
President Donald Trump's effort to remove limits on his power to hire
and fire.
Chief Justice John Roberts signed an order pausing a ruling from the
federal appeals court in Washington that had temporarily restored the
two women to their jobs. They were separately fired from agencies that
deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal
workers as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce.
Roberts handles emergency appeals from the nation's capital. He called
for the two board members, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations
Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board, to weigh
in by early next week.
It's not clear why Roberts would have paused the appellate ruling unless
he and his colleagues believe it was likely wrong.
The immediate issue confronting the justices is whether the board
members, both initially appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, can
stay in their jobs while the larger fight continues over what to do with
a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor. In
that case from 1935, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot
fire independent board members without cause.
The ruling has long rankled conservative legal theorists, who argue it
wrongly curtails the president’s power. Roberts was part of the current
conservative majority on the Supreme Court that already has narrowed its
reach in a 2020 decision.
Soon the high court could narrow it further or jettison it altogether.
In its emergency appeal, the administration also suggested the justices
should take up and decide the broader issue of presidential power. The
court could hear arguments at a special session in May and issue a
decision by early summer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.
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Construction scaffolding is in place at the Supreme Court Tuesday,
April 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted
7-4 to return Wilcox and Harris to their jobs while their cases play
out. The action of the full appeals court reversed a judgment from a
three-judge panel that had allowed the firings to go forward.
The NLRB resolves hundreds of unfair labor practice cases every
year. The five-member board lacked a quorum after Wilcox’s removal.
Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB in its 90-year
history. She first joined the board in 2021, and the Senate
confirmed her in September 2023 to serve a second term expected to
last five years.
The other board in the case reviews disputes from federal workers
and could be a significant stumbling block as the administration
seeks to carry out its workforce cuts.
The board members' reinstatement “causes grave and irreparable harm
to the President and to our Constitution’s system of separated
powers,” Sauer wrote. Harris and Wilcox are removable “at will” by
the president, he wrote.
In the lower courts, Wilcox’s attorneys said Trump could not fire
her without notice, a hearing or identifying any “neglect of duty or
malfeasance in office” on her part.
Perhaps foreshadowing the coming confrontation, the lawyers argued
that the administration’s “only path to victory” was to persuade the
Supreme Court to “adopt a more expansive view of presidential
power.”
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