Biden appointees Gwynne Wilcox of National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of Merit Systems Protection Board were fired soon after Trump took office.
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9 temporarily paused two lower court rulings that blocked the president from firing members of independent labor boards.
Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on behalf of the court, halted the orders by two Washington-based federal judges that blocked Trump’s firing of Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board before their terms expire.
The court’s order, called an administrative stay, gives the Supreme Court more time to consider the Trump administration’s request for a block as litigation plays out.
“The President should not be forced to delegate his executive power to agency heads who are demonstrably at odds with the Administration’s policy objectives for a single day—much less for the months that it would likely take for the courts to resolve this litigation,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the application.
Wilcox was appointed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Joe Biden in 2021 after Senate confirmation. She was reappointed in 2023.
TUnder the National Labor Relations Act, the NLRB hears complaints about employers engaged in unfair labor practices.
Trump ordered her fired on Jan. 27 and notified her by email.
According to the application, the email said the NLRB was “not presently fulfilling its responsibility to the American people,” and that it would be in a better position to comply with administration objectives “with personnel of [Trump’s] own selection.”
The email said Wilcox “had not, in [Trump’s] judgment, been operating in a manner consistent with the objectives of [his] administration.”
The email also said that several of Wilcox’s decisions were improper because they raised “serious First Amendment concerns” and “vastly exceeded the bounds of the National Labor Relations Act.”
Wilcox sued in federal district court in Washington and won a summary judgment on March 6 that said her removal was “unlawful” and that she “remains a member” of the NLRB who can be removed by the president only on grounds provided in the statute governing the board.
