Supreme Court Declines to Hear Gwynne Wilcox Appeal, Leaving in Place Ruling Upholding Trump's Removal of NLRB Member
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on October 19 declined to hear an appeal by former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox challenging the legality of her firing by President Donald Trump in January 2025. A lower-court ruling that said the removal was a valid exercise of executive authority remains in place.
Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the board, was appointed to a second five-year term in 2023 by former President Joe Biden. Trump moved to fire her about a week into his second presidential term, drawing a lawsuit by Wilcox. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in March 2025 upheld the federal law protecting NLRB officials from being fired without cause, rejecting Trump's argument. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that ruling 2-1 in December 2025, prompting Wilcox's appeal to the Supreme Court.
The court's refusal to take the case follows its decision in June backing Trump's firing of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter. That ruling overturned the court's 1935 precedent in Humphrey's Executor, which had recognized the authority of Congress to protect leaders of certain regulatory agencies from presidential removal at will. Both Wilcox and Slaughter were Biden appointees. (GSM, via Reuters)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：国家劳工关系委员会前委员 Gwynne Wilcox 官方肖像。图片来源：国家劳工关系委员会 NLRB，公共领域（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: Official portrait of former NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox. Source: National Labor Relations Board, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).
