Agency Firing Case Tees Up Trump Attack on Judicial Authority

The Trump administration’s legal defense of the firings of two independent agency officials includes a bid to narrow federal courts’ power to block White House efforts to expand executive reach if they’re found to be illegal or unconstitutional.

Even if President Donald Trump’s terminations of members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board violated their removal protections, courts lack the authority to reinstate them, the administration has argued.

Republican-appointed judges on an influential appeals court endorsed the administration’s position earlier this week, signaling that it could find traction with the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority. ...