Trump appeals rulings that blocked his firings of Democrats on independent federal boards

The Trump administration on Tuesday asked a three-judge circuit court panel to suspend rulings from district judges that reinstated ousted Biden appointees to the Merit Systems Protection Board and National Labor Relations Board in a case that ultimately seems likely to end up in the Supreme Court. 

The judges were respectively appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Earlier this month, the trio allowed for Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger to be removed while the court heard the Trump administration's appeal of a similar district judge ruling that blocked Trump’s firing of the special counsel. Following that decision, Dellinger decided to drop his lawsuit.  

Trump on Feb. 10 attempted to fire MSPB board member Cathy Harris, whose term expires in 2028. Harris represents one-third of the federal employee appeals board that has experienced a surge in cases as a result of the president’s mass firings and layoffs of civil servants. 

A district judge on March 4 stopped the removal, agreeing that the president can only remove an MSPB member for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” 

Harris on March 5 ordered the temporary reinstatement of thousands of Agriculture Department probationary employees who were fired by the Trump administration. 

“Congress, which is the people’s representatives, have enacted a law…to say that these types of neutral arbiters have a measure of protection [from removal] because otherwise they can’t decide cases free of fear or favor,” Harris’ lawyer argued on Tuesday. 

If Harris is removed, that would leave MSPB without a quorum. From 2017 to 2022, the board also lacked a quorum, which created a 3,500-case backlog that was only virtually eliminated at the end of 2024. Due to an interim final rule established that same year, MSPB can conduct some actions without a quorum.

Likewise, a district judge on March 6 reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the NLRB. Trump in late January fired Wilcox ahead of the end of her term in 2028, leaving the agency that resolves unfair labor practices in the private sector without a quorum to hear and decide cases. 

“The president has no legitimate interest in disabling this body created by Congress from performing its functions. He does have a legitimate interest in, [as] a new president elected by the people, putting his stamp on the agency,” Wilcox’s attorney said. “He does that by naming a new general counsel [and] he does that by naming the chair, which he has done. And he could do that, hasn’t done so yet, by naming people to the two vacancies. All of that would put his stamp on the agency and allow it to function in the way that he would like.” 

The Trump administration, on the other hand, contended that the president should be able to remove members of the MSPB and NLRB at will. 

“The ‘for cause’ removal restrictions for members of the NLRB and MSPB unconstitutionally infringe on the president’s core Article II authority to supervise principal officers who wield his executive power on his behalf,” the government’s lawyer argued. 

In a similar case, a district judge on March 12 ordered that Susan Tsui Grundmann be reinstated as a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which oversees federal sector labor issues. Trump fired her in February despite Grundmann’s term not ending until July.