A federal judge Thursday ordered the reinstatement of a National Labor Relations Board member and had harsh words for President Donald Trump in the process.
Senior Judge Beryl Howell, of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Trump lacks the power to freely fire members of the NLRB, in this case Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the board.
“The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law," Howell wrote.
The five-member NLRB polices unfair labor practices and mediates worker-management disputes.
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Central to Wilcox's case, Howell wrote, "is the President’s insistence that he has authority to fire whomever he wants within the Executive branch, overriding any congressionally mandated law in his way.”
Trump does not have that power, Howell contended, writing that Trump's "interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power — or, more aptly, his aspiration — is flat wrong."
Howell said the framers of the Constitution, "anticipating such a power grab," gave the courts "the power to interpret the law, including resolving conflicts about congressional checks on presidential authority."
“An American President is not a king — not even an 'elected' one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances, as are present here,” Howell wrote.
“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,” she added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Deepak Gupta, an attorney for Wilcox, celebrated the decision.
“This decisive victory firmly rejects an extreme presidential power grab. Today’s decision is a win not only for Ms. Wilcox but also for the integrity of the National Labor Relations Board and its vital mission to protect American workers," Gupta said in a statement. "The court has reinforced key legal protections for independent agencies that Congress designed to be impartial.”
The Senate confirmed Wilcox for a second five-year term in 2023. The Trump administration also terminated Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel at the NLRB, in January. She began her four-year term in July 2021.
The initial termination of Wilcox came amid ongoing efforts by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech mogul Elon Musk, to reshape the federal government and push for massive layoffs.
A separate judge over the weekend called Trump’s firing of a top government watchdog "unlawful."
However, the fired official, Hampton Dellinger, the head of the government’s independent whistleblower agency, dropped his lawsuit challenging his termination after an appeals court allowed him to be removed while his case proceeded.
