The Court of Appeal reveals Trump layoffs of 2 members of the Board of Directors in cases probably led to the Supreme Court

Washington (AP) – Two members of the board of directors drawn by the president Donald Trump Can return to their work for the moment, a shared court of appeal ruled on Monday before a probable force of the Supreme Court on the power of the president on independent agencies.

A court of appeal in the national capital rendered the decision 7-4 in legal proceedings Appeared by two women drawn separately from the agencies that both deal with work problems, one with a key role for a federal workforce, Trump aims to considerably reduce the workforce.

The order largely depends on a 90 -year supreme court decision known as Humphrey’s executorWho noted that the presidents cannot dismiss independent members of the board of directors without reason.

But this decision has long put conservative legal theorists who argue that this wrongly limits the power of the president, and the experts say that the current conservative majority of the Supreme Court can be ready to overthrow it.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly declared the Appeal Courts to follow the previous Supreme Court unless and until the court changes or overthrows it,” the majority wrote in an unsigned opinion. The 7 members of the majority were appointed by Democratic presidents. The four dissidents are people named Republican, three of whom are named by Trump in his first mandate.

The vote was closer, 6-5, on the opportunity to suspend the decision of a week to let the Trump administration appeal immediately to the Supreme Court.

The decision is not a final decision on the legal advantages of the case, but it reveals a judgment of a panel of three judges from the same American court of appeal for the circuit of the District of Columbia which had allowed the layoffs to move forward.

Former President Joe Biden appointed the two members of the Licensed Board of Directors. Cathy Harris comes from the Merit Systems Protection Board, which examines the disputes of federal workers and could be a significant stumbling block while the Trump administration seeks to make a spectacular reduction in the workforce.

Gwynne Wilcox, on the other hand, has sat on the National Council for Labor Relations, which resolves hundreds of cases of unfair work. The board of directors of five members did not have a quorum after the withdrawal of Wilcox.

Government lawyers have argued that Trump can withdraw the two members of the board of directors. In Wilcox’s caseThey said that reinstatement “is a serious prejudice to the separation of powers and undermines the president’s ability to exercise his authority under the Constitution”.

They also argued that the members of the MSPB as Harris are removable “at will” by the president.

Wilcox lawyers said Trump could not dismiss her without notice, an audience or identify a “negligence in matters of duty or embezzlement” on his part. They argued that the “only way to the victory” of the administration is to persuade the United States Supreme Court “to adopt a larger vision of presidential power”.

Wilcox was the first black woman to sit on the board of directors of five members during her 90 years of history on the board. Biden named it for the first time in 2021, and the Senate confirmed it to serve a second term which should last five years in September 2023.

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The writer Associated Press, Mark Sherman, contributed to this story.