The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia handed President Donald Trump a major victory on Friday. The issue at hand was whether fired members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit System Protections Board would remain fired while the legal process continues. In a 2-1 vote, the appeals court found that overruling the firings of Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox would cause irreparable harm by depriving Trump of his constitutionally vested authority as president. 

BREAKING: The federal court of appeals in DC has cleared the way for Trump to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board, consolidating Trump's grip on once "independent" parts of the executive branch.https://t.co/epL3UTiIkY pic.twitter.com/Eb2kJd2rxS

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 28, 2025

In a sea of judicial decisions that appear heavily politicized, this is a nice return to sanity. Harris and Wilcox were both appointed by former President Joe Biden to agencies under the executive branch. While the press is rushing to call this an infringement on "independent" agencies, the reality is that no executive agencies are independent, nor should they be. Accountability and oversight of the bureaucracy are paramount, and that relies on the ultimate authority over it resting with the president. Anyone else would put government officials out of the reach of voters.

The dissenting vote was Judge Patricia Millet, who has been busy lately. She is also hearing a case involving the deportation of alleged gang members by the Trump administration, and in a recent hearing, she proclaimed that "Nazis got better treatment" than those being deported. So yeah, make of that what you will regarding her possible biases. 

SEE: Judge Says 'Nazies Got Better Treatment' Than Deported Gang Members, Tom Homan Roasts Her

Judge Millett dissents, saying her colleagues upend Supreme Court precedent and effectively disable th e two boards from functioning while the case proceeds. https://t.co/epL3UTiIkY pic.twitter.com/ikUJ13kSZY

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 28, 2025

Speaking as a layman and not a lawyer, I'm not sure Millett's argument makes much sense. If the president holds authority over the NLRB and MSPB, then the president has the power to stop them from functioning. Any time there is a firing in this context, there is going to be a period of vacancy while a replacement goes through the appointment process. Taking Millett's argument to its logical conclusion, no one could ever be fired if it affects the daily operation of an agency. 

Politically speaking, the NLRB has long been a far-left bastion used to harass private corporations at the behest of progressive ideologues. Is it any wonder Trump wouldn't want to leave Biden's appointees in place? I don't know if this decision will have ramifications in other cases dealing with the firing of bureaucrats, but it is a decent indication that the higher this stuff goes up the food chain, including up to the Supreme Court, the more likely the Trump administration is to come out victorious.

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