Labor board member fired by Trump loses out on Supreme Court review

A member of the National Labor Relations Board sought to test the bounds of the conservative supermajority’s new landmark ruling on executive authority.WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court dodged a fight over the limits of President Donald Trump’s executive authority on Monday, declining to review his firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board.Despite the high court’s expansive ruling curtailing the independence of executive agencies last term, Gwynne Wilcox challenged her termination from the NLRB. She urged the justices to review her appeal, claiming the agency fell outside the bounds of presidential power.Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB and as its chair, was fired in an email a week after Trump retook office in 2025. Trump claimed that he terminated Wilcox because he needed a board of his choosing to carry out the administration’s policies.She was initially reinstated by the D.C. Circuit until the Supreme Court blocked the decision at Trump’s request.The government said there was no need to review Wilcox’s appeal on the merits now because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Slaughter settled the matter. The 6-3 decision held that Trump had authority to fire executive board commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, overturning a landmark decision preserving the independence of regulatory agencies.But Wilcox said Congress structured the NLRB in response to separation of powers concerns. She said the five-member board functions like an independent court, with members issuing decisions by applying federal labor law to the record in the cases that come before it.Similar to a court, the NLRB resolves only the cases brought before it and has no investigative or prosecutorial powers.The D.C. Circuit ruled on Wilcox’s case prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Slaughter. Wilcox urged the justices to grant her petition so either the appeals court or the justices themselves had an opportunity to review the NLRB under the new precedent.“Every year, the board decides hundreds of disputes brought by employers, employees and unions,” Wilcox wrote. “To leave its status under Slaughter unresolved would cast those decisions into doubt, depriving the agency’s stakeholders, and the agency itself, of the certainty they urgently need.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads