By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
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.
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.”