A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld President Trump’s removal of two members of independent agencies, ruling 2-1 that the firings were lawful. The case concerns Cathy Harris, a Democratic member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, both dismissed soon after Mr. Trump took office without the administration invoking statutorily specified causes such as neglect of duty or malfeasance.
Lower courts had ordered Harris and Wilcox reinstated, relying on the 1935 Supreme Court precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor, which restricts presidential removal power over agencies that perform largely quasi-judicial or quasi-legislative functions. The government appealed, and in May the Supreme Court temporarily allowed the firings to remain in place while it considers related questions, indicating the administration was likely to show the agencies exercise significant executive power.
In the D.C. Circuit majority opinion, Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, emphasized the MSPB and the NLRB exercise substantial authority that looks executive in nature, citing their substantive rulemaking powers and broad remedial authority including reinstatement and back pay. The majority concluded those powers place the agencies outside Humphrey’s Executor protections. The opinion declined to resolve whether bodies that are purely adjudicatory or uniquely insulated, such as the Federal Reserve, remain protected from at‑will removal.
Judge Florence Pan, the panel’s lone dissenter and a Biden appointee, argued the MSPB and NLRB do not wield sufficient executive power to justify overturning Humphrey’s Executor. She warned the ruling could politicize agency decision making, weaken expertise and merit-based hiring, and harm the public interest by making independent agencies more vulnerable to political influence.
The decision comes as the Supreme Court prepares to review related separation of powers and removal questions that could reshape the degree of independence federal agencies enjoy from presidential control.