Fired Agency Officials to Return to Work in Latest Twist (1)

Two independent agency officials fired by President Donald Trump will return to work as litigation over their terminations proceeds, restoring their agencies to fully functioning.

The full US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday ruled in favor of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris, vacating a panel decision that had paused district courts’ reinstatement orders while the administration challenges them.

The circuit court split 7-4, with the judges appointed by Democratic presidents siding with the fired officials and those appointed by Republicans backing the Trump administration.

The ruling from the full D.C. Circuit marks another chapter in the federal courts’ consideration of Trump’s attempt to expand presidential removal power. He’s fired several independent agency officials despite their statutory protections against such at-will removal, which are backed by a line of US Supreme Court decisions going back 90 years.

The Trump administration will likely seek intervention from the Supreme Court—where Republican-appointed justices command a 6-3 majority—to sideline the two fired officials while litigation moves forward.

Recent court action in the Wilcox and Harris cases has been focused on the Trump administration’s efforts to pause federal judges’ reinstatement orders. A D.C. Circuit motions panel halted the decisions that had put them back to work.

Neither the NLRB nor MSPB have enough members to issue decisions if Wilcox and Harris aren’t allowed to serve on their respective boards.

The full D.C. Circuit’s unsigned order relied on Supreme Court precedent. The high court unanimously upheld removal restrictions for members of adjudicatory agency boards in 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor v. US and 1958’s Wiener v. US, the circuit court said.

Although the justices in recent years struck down removal protections for single agency heads, they left Humphrey’s Executor and Wiener in place, according to the order.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly told the courts of appeals to follow extant Supreme Court precedent unless and until that Court itself changes it or overturns it,” it stated.

The D.C. Circuit also declined the official’s request for an initial hearing en banc—and the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal—so Wilcox and Harris will continue to work while a three-judge panel considers the scope of presidential removal powers tested by the recent firings. Oral argument is scheduled for May 16.

Wilcox’s lawyer, Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler LLP, said the full circuit court’s ruling reaffirms precedent protecting the independence of agencies like the NLRB and the Federal Reserve Board.

Harris’ lawyer, Nathaniel Zelinsky of Milbank LLP, provided a statement saying she’s “deeply grateful” for the decision.

“All I want to do is the job to which I was confirmed by the Senate of the United States,” Harris said. “Congress wrote protections into the law that Presidents of both parties have respected for decades. Until Donald Trump.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cases are Wilcox v. Trump, D.C. Cir., No. 25-05057, 4/7/25 and Harris v. Bessent, D.C. Cir., No. 25-05037, 4/7/25.