In Washington, attorneys from the Department of Justice sought intervention from an appeals court on Tuesday to halt lower court rulings that favored two federal board members who were dismissed by former President Donald Trump. After hearing presentations from both sides, the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit postponed making an immediate decision.
Earlier, on March 4, a ruling by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras determined that Trump acted unlawfully in his attempt to terminate Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board. Shortly thereafter, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found that Trump lacked the authority to dismiss Gwynne Wilcox from her role at the National Labor Relations Board.
The Trump administration is currently pursuing a temporary halt on these decisions as it prepares to contest them in higher courts. The appeals court is set to review the validity of the government’s arguments in upcoming hearings yet to be scheduled.
Attorneys representing the government insist that the lower court rulings encroach upon the president’s powers, arguing that the board members occupy positions answerable only to the presidency. Eric McArthur, representing the Justice Department, declared, “They are agency heads who answer to no one but the president.”
On the other hand, attorneys defending the board members maintain that historical and legal precedents, particularly from the U.S. Supreme Court, support their case. Nathaniel Zelinsky, representing Harris, urged the panel, “The government is asking you to throw out centuries of precedent.” Similarly, Deepak Gupta, speaking for Wilcox, emphasized, “These statutes have been around for a century, and presidents have not gone around violating them.”
Cathy Harris received her board nomination from President Joe Biden in 2021, while Gwynne Wilcox was nominated for a second five-year tenure with the NLRB in 2023. The proceedings were overseen by Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Patricia Millett, and Justin Walker, the latter being a Trump appointee from 2020, during Trump’s presidential tenure.
