The United States Supreme Court dropped two decisions earlier on Thursday, including one relating to the public funding of religious charter schools, as we previously reported.
RELATED: Supreme Court: Public Funding Is Out for Oklahoma Religious Schools
Now, the high court has issued an "opinion related to an order" from its emergency docket rather than its regular merits docket. The case involves the powers meted out by the Constitution to the President of the United States, on whom he or she can fire:
BREAKING: #SCOTUS allows Trump to fire labor board members. Apparent 6-3 decision with all liberal justices in dissent. Court says more harm from denying POTUS right to remove officials than from those officials staying in office. Doc: https://t.co/2RbI8xTkw6
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) May 22, 2025
Margot Cleveland wrote on her X account in the wake of the decision that this is "[a]nother win from [sic] Trump at SCOTUS, of course justices decided to deprive Trump of his executive authority for nearly 2 months before acting to let firings of executive officers to take effect."
The executive officers she's referring to are members of the National Labor Relations and Merit System Protection Boards, whom President Trump fired, as we previously wrote in this legal saga. In late March, my colleague Bonchie wrote that the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided (by a 2-1 vote) "that overruling the firings of Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox would cause irreparable harm by depriving Trump of his constitutionally vested authority as president."
This was appealed in early April to the entire panel, which Bonchie explained, essentially "unfired" the executive officers on the boards, with their "7-4 decision against the administration."
Finally, SCOTUS dramatically weighed in, two days later, on Apr. 9 to stay the decision:
🔥BOOM. SCOTUS grants stay. https://t.co/SmifE48SZA pic.twitter.com/Gpq6I0btwC
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 9, 2025
MORE: Update: Appeals Court 'Unfires' NLRB and MSPB Appointees, Sets Up Next Legal Showdown
The Trump administration can count this one as a new win, while we wait for outcomes on many other lawsuits seeking to stay the executive's power under 47. In an X post, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch calls it "a massive blow to the permanent administrative state":
In a massive blow to the permanent administrative state, the Supreme Court, in 6-3 order, lifts stay on @RealDonaldTrump firings of Democratic appointees to "independent agencies." Key majority finding does not augur well for the future of constitutionally suspect agencies that…
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 22, 2025
He included these details:
Key majority finding does not augur well for the future of constitutionally suspect agencies that protect appointees from being fired by the Chief Executive:
Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, see Art. II, §1, cl. 1, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents, see Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 591 U. S. 197, 215−218 (2020). The stay reflects our judgment that the Government is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power. But we do not ultimately decide in this posture whether the NLRB or MSPB falls within such a recognized exception; that question is better left for resolution after full briefing and argument. The stay also reflects our judgment that the Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.
You can read the full opinion here.
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