A federal judge has ordered the reinstatement of a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board whom President Donald Trump fired shortly after his inauguration.
The board member, Gwynne Wilcox, had been appointed by former President Joe Biden, and her 5-year term was supposed to run through August 2028. By removing her in January, Trump eliminated the NLRB’s quorum, rendering it unable to issue decisions.
In her court order issued Thursday, Judge Beryl A. Howell wrote that Trump’s firing of Wilcox was “unlawful” and “therefore null and void.”
Lawyers for the administration had claimed that Trump had the power to fire Wilcox at will, even though the law states that board members may only be removed for “neglect of duty” or “malfeasance,” and only after being given “notice and hearing.”
Trump’s argument is part of a broader legal effort by the White House to assert sweeping executive control over independent agencies like the NLRB. But Howell wasn’t buying it as it relates to the NLRB, which enforces collective-bargaining law.
“The President’s interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power – or, more aptly, his aspiration – is flat wrong,” she wrote in an opinion. “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 went on to say that Trump doesn’t seem to understand the constitutional checks on presidential powers. She even cited his Feb. 15 post on X declaring, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
“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 wrote.
Wilcox, who was the first Black woman to serve as an NLRB board member, filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement shortly after her firing. She alleged that Trump violated both the National Labor Relations Act and U.S. Supreme Court precedent by kicking her out before her term was up.
“When Congress established the National Labor Relations Board almost 90 years ago, it made sure that the law would protect its independence from political influence,” Wilcox said in a statement at the time. “My removal, without cause or process, directly violates that law.”
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A 90-year-old Supreme Court decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, also limits the president’s power to fire officials from independent, quasi-judicial bodies such as the labor board. Trump also removed officials from other agencies mid-term, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Election Commission.
Wilma Liebman, a former NLRB member, recently told HuffPost that Trump’s firing of Wilcox was “shocking” and threatened the agency’s role as an independent enforcer of the law.
“It has the intent, I suppose, of trying to transform a neutral, objective, adjudicatory body into Trump’s henchmen,” Liebman said. “To me, it seems that the obvious first intent is to create chaos and make the agency inoperative.”