Biden appointees Gwynne Wilcox of National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of Merit Systems Protection Board were fired soon after Trump took office.
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9 temporarily paused two lower court rulings that blocked the president from firing members of independent labor boards.
Chief Justice John Roberts, acting on behalf of the court, halted the orders by two Washington-based federal judges that blocked Trump’s firing of Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board before their terms expire.
The court’s order, called an administrative stay, gives the Supreme Court more time to consider the Trump administration’s request for a block as litigation plays out.
“The President should not be forced to delegate his executive power to agency heads who are demonstrably at odds with the Administration’s policy objectives for a single day—much less for the months that it would likely take for the courts to resolve this litigation,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the application.
Wilcox was most recently appointed to the National Labor Relations Board by President Joe Biden in 2023 after confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Trump ordered her fired on Jan. 27 of this year and notified her by email.
Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, was fired by Trump on Feb. 10.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
