A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a member of the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, finding her firing without cause violated federal law.
Trump officials in January fired Gwynne Wilcox, who was serving as chair of the board, without stating a reason. The firing left the five-member board without a quorum required to function and Wilcox filed a lawsuit.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided the issue in Wilcox v. Trump et al. in a more permanent way, rather than with a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunctions that other judges have issued in other challenges to Trump actions.
Howell wrote in an opinion that Congress passed a statute that NLRB members cannot be removed from office without cause, and a nearly century-old Supreme Court precedent protects members of multi-member agency boards from removal. Howell noted that allowing Trump to remove Wilcox would keep the NLRB from functioning and effectively paralyze enforcement of federal labor law.
“The President seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme,” Howell wrote.
Howell criticized Trump’s actions and holding himself out as king. “A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell wrote.
And Howell wrote that Trump still has powers to steer the agency, which includes appointing a general counsel, designating the agency’s chair and nominating board members to the two vacant seats.
The Trump administration argued that any restrictions on a president’s ability to remove federal officials violated the Constitution. The administration further argued that federal courts do not have the authority to reinstate Wilcox and could only at most offer Wilcox back pay after her firing.
The Trump administration will almost certainly appeal Howell’s ruling, since the Justice Department officially told Congress that it would seek to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision from 1935 that Howell cited to overturn Wilcox’s firing, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
The fight over Trump’s firing of Wilcox and other federal officials without cause appears destined for the Supreme Court, as part of a broader effort to invalidate congressionally passed restrictions on the president’s ability to remove federal officials.
Trump has asserted a broad authority to fire anyone who works for the executive branch, and has fired inspectors general, the special counsel, agency board members like Wilcox and thousands of other federal workers across the government.
The ruling comes a day after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused a different judge’s order reinstating Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. Dellinger brought a similar suit over his firing last month, but said Thursday he would drop his case after the appellate court ruling.
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