The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that President Donald Trump does not have to reinstate, for now, two independent federal labor officials he fired without cause, casting legal uncertainty over the independence of the various federal agencies outside the direct control of the White House.
In its decision, the high court granted the Trump administration’s request to pause lower court orders calling for the reinstatement of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris, two Biden appointees whom Trump summarily removed from their independent labor agencies. Wilcox and Harris had each challenged their firings as unlawful in light of existing federal statutes ensuring they can only be removed by the president for cause.