Fate of independent agency leaders now in peril

On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court short-circuited deliberations at the D.C. Appellate Court on whether President Trump can fire members of independent boards by granting the administration’s emergency request for a stay of the proceedings. The decision—which goes far beyond simply keeping National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) Member Cathy Harris from returning to their posts—explicitly supports the president’s expansive view of his authority to hire and fire members of the executive branch at will.

Supreme Court sides with Trump administration

Writing as if in a deliberated opinion, the Court espoused the president’s position that Wilcox and Harris’ assertions implicated the executive’s authority under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. As if acknowledging its ruling would draw criticism, the Court staunchly defended its upholding of the terminations rather than returning matters to the status quo ante:

The stay also reflects our judgment that 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.

The Court insisted it wasn’t making a final decision in the termination cases, but the majority all but foreclosed additional consideration by holding that the president “may remove without cause” officers who exercise executive power, subject to narrow exceptions.

Federal Reserve at issue