President Donald Trump may remove members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board at will, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The 2-1 decision from a panel of judges in Washington, D.C., reverses lower-court rulings blocking Trump's attempts to fire members of the key labor and employment panels.
"Congress may not restrict the President's ability to remove principal officers who wield substantial executive power," the two-judge majority wrote, citing a 2020 case known as Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
They determined that another key court precedent, which was cited in the prior rulings that favored the fired board members, did not apply to the NLRB and MSPB.
Those boards "wield substantial powers that are both executive in nature and different from the powers" that are covered by the removal protections laid out in the 1935 case known as Humphrey's Executor, the majority wrote.
"So, Congress cannot restrict the President's ability to remove NLRB or MSPB members," they ruled.
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