Federal judge reinstates labor board member fired by President Donald Trump

A federal judge agreed Thursday to reinstate a board member whom President Donald Trump removed from an independent labor agency.

National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox sued Trump after he fired her and the agency's general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, on Jan. 27.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump did not have the authority to remove Wilcox from the NLRB.

Wilcox's attorneys said no president previously had tried to remove an NLRB member. They argued that board members can only be fired “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office” and only after giving notice and holding a hearing.

Trump's “only path to victory” in Wilcox's case would be to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to ”adopt a new, more aggressive vision of presidential power that would effectively abolish independent agencies” in the U.S., her lawyers wrote.

During a hearing Wednesday, Howell jokingly referred to herself as a “speed bump” for the case on its way to the Supreme Court.

Government attorneys argued that NLRB members should be “removable at will to ensure democratic accountability.” Reinstating Wilcox to the board would be “an extraordinary intrusion on the executive branch,” they added.

“The President cannot be compelled to retain the services of a principal officer whom the President no longer believes should be entrusted with the exercise of executive power,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the five-member board in its 90-year history. The Senate confirmed Wilcox for a second five-year term in September 2023.

Congress created the board in 1935. Its primary purpose is to resolve disputes over unfair labor practices. It adjudicated hundreds of cases in the last fiscal year.