OAN Staff James Meyers
8:19 AM – Monday, April 7, 2025
A federal appeals court reversed course Monday and erased a previous decision that allowed President Donald Trump to fire the heads of two independent agencies.
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In a 7-4 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit erased a ruling from a three-judge panel on the court that sided with the Trump administration last month that gave the go ahead Trump’s firings of Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board.
The Monday ruling now paves the way for Harris and Wilcox to return to their roles, for now, but the Trump administration can now file an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court level.
The cases are a key test of the Supreme Court’s 90-year-old precedent that uphold removal restrictions for multi member independent agency boards, which has been recently shrunk. The D.C. Circuit majority emphasized it is for the Supreme Court to decide whether to overrule its own decision, but the lower courts must follow it until then.
“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,” reads the court’s unsigned ruling.
Harris and Wilcox each sued the Trump administration after the president was unceremoniously fired from their roles. The law in place says any firings must be justified by “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
The Supreme Court ruled that firing was illegal, saying Congress had the power to insulate some office-holders from removal except in cases of good cause, such as malfeasance.
Trump has argued the law limits his powers to control the executive branch.
Judge Naomi Rao, one of the four dissenting judges, said the court was wrongly rushing to “get Harris and Wilcox back to work.” Also claiming that the seven judges in the majority were meanwhile all appointed by Democrat presidents.
“Without considering the difficult questions regarding the scope of the court’s equitable or legal authority, the en banc majority blesses the district court’s unprecedented injunctions and purports to reinstate principal officers ousted by the president. In so doing, the majority threatens to send this court headlong into a clash with the executive,” Judge Rao wrote.
Meanwhile, Monday’s ruling is only temporary. The case will now return to a three-judge S.C. Circuit panel to make a final ruling on the legality of the firings. However, the Trump administration could meanwhile seek an immediate intervention from the Supreme Court on its emergency docket.
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