In a 6-3 split, the U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a win Thursday, saying he can fire federal executives who exercise power on his behalf without cause.
Trump removed Gwynne Wilcox, who was a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and Cathy Harris, who served on the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Both women are Democrats appointed by former President Joe Biden.
It seems logical that a president can root out people likely to work against him and appoint people who represent his agenda.
But after Trump fired them, they went to court saying the president does not have the authority to remove them without cause and asked to be reinstated.
“Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President … he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. But that is not the final word.
In future hearings, Trump is “Likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power,” Roberts wrote, “But we do not ultimately decide in this posture whether the NLRB or MSPB falls within such a recognized exception; that question is better left for resolution after full briefing and argument.”
The decision is also meant to prevent disgruntled appointees from having power.
“The Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty,” Roberts wrote in his two-page decision.
An eight-page dissenting opinion was issued by Justice Elena Kagan and joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
They argue to keep unelected bureaucrats in power, saying boards such as the NLRB and the MSPB are “bipartisan administrative bodies carrying out expertise-based functions with a measure of independence from presidential control.”
The government has many similar boards, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Federal Reserve Board.
“Congress created them all … It thought that in certain spheres of government, a group of knowledgeable people from both parties — none of whom a President could remove without cause — would make decisions likely to advance the long-term public good.”
The dissenting justices say the decision deprives members of independent agencies of tenure protections.
“What matters … is not that Wilcox and Harris would love to keep serving in their nifty jobs. What matters instead is that Congress provided for them to serve their full terms, protected from a president’s desire to substitute his political allies,” Kagan wrote, adding that Biden’s appointees, “Will make sound judgments precisely because not fully controlled by the White House.”
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
Jesus Christ is King
