BREAKING: Supreme Court rules on Trump firing heads of independent labor agencies

May 22, 2025

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From ABC News: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Thursday bolstered President Donald Trump’s bid to assume full control of executive branch agencies, giving a green light — for now — to his removal of the heads of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board, whom he fired without cause.

A district court had sided with Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board, concluding their firings from their independent agencies were likely illegal and must be reversed.

In a 6-3 decision, the high court granted Trump’s request for a stay of the lower court order to reinstate Harris and Wilcox, at least for now.

“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 majority explained.

The dispute is currently working its way through a federal court of appeals and may ultimately return to the Supreme Court on the merits.

Dissenting from the decision were the three liberal Justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

This case does not implicate the Federal Reserve, the court writes, b/c “the Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.”

— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) May 22, 2025