Trump administration asks Supreme Court to block ruling on reinstating fired board members

The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court order for reinstating members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board whom President Trump had fired.

The key issue is whether agency heads like the NLRB’s Gwynne Wilcox and the MSPB’s Cathy Harris can be fired by a president at will or whether they are insulated by Congress from dismissal.

Solicitor General John Sauer told the high court that it’s wrong for lower courts to leave these people in their posts under the president’s authority.

“The President’s ‘power to remove — and thus supervise — those who wield executive power on his behalf’ stands among his ‘core constitutional powers,’” Mr. Sauer argued in his court filing. “It is ‘conclusive and preclusive,’ and thus untouchable by Congress.

“Until this Administration, no court had ever ordered the reinstatement of a concededly executive officer removed by the President,” he added.

Ms. Wilcox was removed from the NLRB after Mr. Trump said she had not been operating in a manner consistent with his objectives.

Ms. Harris was fired from the MSPB. Once she was reinstated by a lower court judge after challenging her removal, she reversed the president’s firing of thousands of federal employees, according to court papers.

“The President should not be forced to delegate his executive power to agency heads who are demonstrably at odds with the Administration’s policy objectives for a single day — much less for the months that it would likely take for the courts to resolve this litigation,” Mr. Sauer told the high court.

He asked the justices to stay the lower court rulings and to hear the dispute.

The NLRB, established in 1935 by Congress, is composed of five members who serve five-year terms. Under the law, they can be removed by the president for negligence or malfeasance.

Congress established the MSPB under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. It is composed of three members who serve seven-year terms, and no more than two members can be from the same political party. It oversees employment disputes and disciplinary actions of federal employees.

Former President Joseph R. Biden, Mr. Trump’s predecessor, appointed Ms. Harris as MSPB chair. He also appointed Ms. Wilcox to her position on the NLRB for a second term.