President Donald Trump can move forward with firing two board members from independent federal agencies after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 to lift restrictions blocking him from doing so.
The court overturned earlier decisions by two district court judges who had blocked the administration from removing Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board, both of whom were appointed by former President Joe Biden.
The appellate court, headed by Judge Justin Walker, ruled that Trump acted within his constitutional rights when he dismissed the individuals.
“Article II of the Constitution vests the ‘executive Power’ in ‘a President of the United States’ and requires him to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’ ‘To protect individual liberty, the Framers created a President independent from the Legislative Branch,’” Walker noted in his ruling, which was enjoined by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, an H.W. Bush nominee.
The appellate court’s decision followed a request from the Justice Department to overturn the lower court orders issued by District Judge Rudolph Contreras and District Judge Beryl Howell. On March 4, Contreras ruled that Trump had violated the law in his attempt to remove Harris, and two days later, Howell found that Trump had exceeded his authority in trying to dismiss Wilcox.
Biden nominated Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board in 2022. He appointed Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board in 2021, renominated her for a second term in 2023, and elevated her to chair in 2024, the Daily Caller reported.
Attorneys for Wilcox and Harris urged the appellate court not to reverse the rulings that blocked their dismissals. According to court documents, Wilcox’s legal team argued that if the Trump administration wanted to “adopt a more expansive view of presidential power,” it should make its case before the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration, however, successfully contended that the president had the authority to remove both board members, asserting that restricting his ability to do so would violate the separation of powers and weaken the constitutional powers of the presidency.
Biden fired NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb in January 2021 just hours after taking office when Robb refused to resign. Robb called the move “unprecedented,” writing, “The removal of an incumbent General Counsel of the NLRB prior to the expiration of the term by a President of the United States is unprecedented since the nascence of the National Labor Relation Act (NLRA) and the NLRB,” according to Bloomberg Law.
In January 2023, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that President Biden had the authority to fire Robb, noting that, as general counsel, he served in an “at will” position. Unlike NLRB board members—who can only be removed for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office” under the National Labor Relations Act—the general counsel does not have the same protections, the court found.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, ruled against the Trump administration, accusing her two colleagues of attempting to “rewrite” Supreme Court precedent.
The court win is a rare victory for the Trump administration, which has been inundated with lawsuits challenging dozens of presidential executive orders. One of the most high-profile cases involves Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport illegal migrant members of a dangerous Venezuela gang that he has designated a terrorist organization.
The administration on Friday requested that the U.S. Supreme Court intervene in the contentious legal dispute. The filing asks justices to reverse an order issued by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg prohibiting additional deportations under the act.
“This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country – the President, through Article II, or the judiciary,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued in a filing with the high court. “The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice.”
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