Trump's Judges Decide He Has the Authority to Dismiss Anyone at Any Time

On Friday, an appeals court sharply criticized a prior ruling that it said could "open the door to autocracy" by permitting President Donald Trump to remove Democratic members from independent federal agencies without restriction. In a 2-1 decision, Trump-appointed judges Gregory Katsas and Justin Walker of the D.C. Circuit Court endorsed the presidents ability to dismiss Democratic officials serving on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Congress cannot limit the Presidents authority to remove principal officers who exercise significant executive power, Katsas wrote in the majority opinion. Both the NLRB and MSPB perform substantial executive functions that differ from the quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial powers described in Humphreys Executor. Therefore, congressional restrictions on the Presidents ability to remove members of these boards are invalid.

The 1935 Supreme Court case Humphreys Executor v. United States established that Congress may enact laws restricting the president from firing officials of independent federal agencies. Judge Florence Pan, dissenting strongly, warned that the ruling dangerously centralizes authority in the presidency. The governments expansive view of executive power threatens to fundamentally reshape the structure of our government, Pan wrote. If applied fully, this theory would remove protections for all Executive Branch employees and place every agency decision under direct presidential control. Such a sweeping shift is neither supported by the Constitutions text nor the Framers intent and risks paving the way toward autocracy.

The Supreme Court has previously allowed Trump to dismiss Democratic officials including Gwynne Wilcox at the NLRB and Cathy Harris at the MSPBboth with terms set to run until 2029as well as three Democratic appointees on the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter on the Federal Trade Commission.

Author: Harper Simmons