Trump can fire labor, employment board members without cause: Appeals court
US President Donald Trump makes an announcement from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on December 3, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump can fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board at any time, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of judges in Washington, D.C., reversed lower court rulings that blocked Trump’s attempts to fire members of key labor and employment boards.
“Congress may not restrict the President’s authority to remove senior officials who have significant executive authority,” the two-judge majority wrote, citing a 2020 case known as Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
They determined that another important court precedent favoring fired board members in previous decisions did not apply to the NLRB and MSPB.
These boards, the majority wrote, “possess significant powers, both executive in nature and distinct from the powers” covered by the impeachment protections laid out in the 1935 case known as Humphrey’s Executor.
“Congress therefore cannot limit the President’s authority to remove members of the NLRB or MSPB,” ruled Judges Gregory Katsas and Justin Walker, both appointed to the D.C. circuit by Trump.
Florence Pan, the third judge on the appeals panel, warned in a strongly worded dissent that Friday’s decision significantly increases the president’s power.
“Today, my colleagues make us the first court to strip away the independence of the traditional multi-member expert agency,” said Pan, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. he wrote.
“According to the logic of my colleagues, it seems that no independent institution can legally exist in this country,” he wrote. “Their determination that the MSPB cannot be independent… shows that no institution can be independent.”
Pan added that his colleagues “redefined the type of executive authority that should be placed under the exclusive command of the President, effectively giving him dominion over approximately thirty-three previously independent agencies.”
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