Supreme Court lets Trump fire Democratic members of labor boards, for now

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday cleared the way for Democratic members of the Merit Systems Protection and National Labor Relations boards to be fired, at least temporarily, just two days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit shielded them from removal.

President Donald Trump attempted to fire Cathy Harris from MSPB and Gwynne Wilcox from NLRB, appointees of former President Joe Biden. District judges blocked their removals, but a panel of the D.C. Circuit in a 2-1 decision on March 28 paused the lower court’s ruling while it heard the case. 

On Monday, however, a majority of D.C. circuit court judges overruled that decision through en banc reconsideration, which is a rare process that involves all judges on the circuit who are in regular active service instead of the usual three-judge panel. Such reconsideration can be utilized if a litigant feels a panel didn’t adhere to Supreme Court precedent. 

Harris and Wilcox have argued that their firings are unlawful because they violate Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 Supreme Court decision that found the president doesn’t have unfettered authority to remove officials on multimember, quasi-judicial bodies. 

The Trump administration, which appealed Monday’s decision to the Supreme Court, has argued that the president should be able to remove senior officers in the executive branch. Wednesday's stay puts the win back in the administration's column.

Roberts’ decision also means that, once again, there won’t be a quorum on the MSPB, which hears appeals of federal employee firings and suspensions and that has recently experienced a surge in cases as a result of Trump’s mass removals of government workers.