UPDATE (April 9, 2025, 4:33 p.m. ET): Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday temporarily halted orders that reinstated federal independent agency members whom President Donald Trump sought to fire. Litigation will continue in the case at the Supreme Court.
In a divided ruling on an issue that could ultimately be resolved at the Supreme Court, a full slate of federal appeals court judges in Washington, D.C., reinstated two members of independent agencies whom President Donald Trump sought to fire.
Though the split decision is a temporary victory for Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Supreme Court could eventually side with the Trump administration and overturn a long-standing precedent in the process.
At the center of the litigation is a 1935 precedent called Humphrey’s Executor, which has protected independent agency members. The decision was called out for targeting in Project 2025, and the Trump administration said it wants it reversed.
Over dissents from Republican-appointed D.C. Circuit judges Monday, the majority noted that Humphrey’s Executor is still a binding precedent. One of the dissenting judges said that “only the Supreme Court can decide the dispute and, in my opinion, the sooner, the better.” Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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