‘A president is not a king’: Federal court reinstates NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox
Strongly worded ruling calls her firing blatantly illegal
In a 36-page order, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said the firing of Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board by President Trump was illegal and ordered that she be reinstated.
The illegal firing of Wilcox hamstrung the NLRB and impeded the ability of the Board to do its work because it lacked the necessary three-member quorum to make decisions during Wilcox’s absence. No decisions were issued between January 28 and March 10. The NLRB began issuing decisions again on March 11 after Wilcox’s return.
Supreme Court precedent
Howell explained that the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1935 case of Humphrey’s Executor, which ruled that an FTC commissioner had been unlawfully removed by Franklin Roosevelt “remains not only binding law, but also a well-reasoned reflection of the balance of power between the political branches sanctioned by the Constitution.”
Blatant violation of the law
“The President’s interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power — or, more aptly, his aspiration — is flat wrong. The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law,” Howell wrote.
Howell referenced a widely criticized social media post from the White House. The post features an image of Trump in a crown with the text, “Long live the king.”
“The Framers made clear that no one in our system of government was meant to be king—the President included—and not just in name only,” Howell wrote.
“A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.” Article II is the section of the Constitution outlining presidential powers.
“An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances, as are present here.”
Wilcox’s attorney, Deepak Gupta, said in a statement, “This decisive victory firmly rejects an extreme presidential power grab.
“Today’s decision is a win not only for Ms. Wilcox but also for the integrity of the National Labor Relations Board and its vital mission to protect American workers.
“The court has reinforced key legal protections for independent agencies that Congress designed to be impartial.”
The judge’s order prohibits NLRB Chairman Marvin Kaplan and anyone beneath him from attempting to unlawfully fire Wilcox again or otherwise obstruct her work.
Trump has stated his intention to make a constitutional challenge to the NLRA removal protections and is appealing the decision. It will first go to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., and then likely to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wilcox was the first member of the NLRB to be removed by a U.S. president since the board’s inception in 1935.
The ruling is the third time in recent weeks that a federal judge has determined that Trump illegally dismissed a Senate-confirmed member of an independent agency.