Mastodawn

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

#SCOTUS may shape #Trump's ability to fire #Fed chair

When SCOTUS rules on Trump's effort to remove 2 federal labor board members, #FederalReserve Chair #JeromePowell will be watching for clues about his own job.

Trump's firings of 2 #Democratic #labor board members despite legal protections for the positions has emerged as a key test of his efforts to bring under his sway #FederalAgencies meant by #Congress to be #independent from a president's direct control.

#law
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-fight-may-shape-trumps-ability-fire-fed-chair-2025-04-29/

At issue in the dispute over #Trump's dismissals of Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board [#MSPB] & Gwynne Wilcox from the National #Labor Relations Board [#NLRB] is whether safeguards passed by #Congress to prevent ofcls in these posts from being fired w/o cause encroach on #PresidentialAuthority set out in the US #Constitution. Harris & Wilcox were appointed by the Republican president's Democratic predecessor Joe #Biden, & both had years left on their terms.

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

The cases are being watched as potential proxies for whether #Trump has the #authority to fire #Fed officials, particularly after his recent criticism of #JeromePowell shook #financial #markets & fueled questions about the US central bank's ability to pursue monetary policy free from political interference.

Powell’s term as Fed chief expires in May 2026 unless reappointed. His 14-yr term on the Fed's Board of Governors is set to run through Jan 2028.

#economy #law #SCOTUS

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

Members of the #Fed's Board of Governors, like the #labor board members, have "for-cause" removal #protections meant to let a president fire them only for reasons such as inefficiency or malfeasance, not policy disagreement.

#Legal experts said that if #SCOTUS decides to eliminate removal protections for the 2 labor boards, it *may try* to create an exception that would insulate #FederalReserve officials like #JeromePowell in a bid to preserve the Fed's #independence.

#economy #law #Trump

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

#SCOTUS gestured in this direction in a footnote to a 2020 ruling that suggested that the #Fed may be able to "claim a special historical status" entitling it to a greater degree of distance from presidential control than other #independent agencies

Other legal grounds have been offered for why the Fed should be more insulated from presidential control, including an argument by some conservative judges & advocates that the central bank does not wield substantial #ExecutivePower.

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

But legal scholars who found the rationales unconvincing said there is no principled reason for treating the #Fed differently than the #labor boards under a series of #SCOTUS rulings that have upheld for-cause protections for agencies.

"If the court carves out a special exception for the #FederalReserve, it will appear that the justices are not applying #ArticleII but legislating from the bench & substituting their personal policy preferences," said Christine Chabot.

#Trump #ActivistCourt #law

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

Harris & Wilcox filed separate legal challenges to their firings, leading 2 Washington-based federal judges to block their removal under a 1935 #SCOTUS precedent in a case called Humphrey's Executor v. United States. In that ruling, the court rebuffed Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt's attempt to defy protections for #FTC members.

Chief Justice #JohnRoberts on April 9 granted the #Trump admin's request to temporarily halt the judicial orders that had kept Harris & Wilcox in office.

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

The #labor boards after that decision confirmed the officials were no longer in their posts.

The action by Roberts gave the justices more time, while #Trump keeps Harris & Wilcox sidelined as legal challenges proceed. The decision could come at any time.

#DOJ attys asked #SCOTUS to consider hearing arguments on a fast-track basis on whether the labor board protections encroached on #PresidentialPower & whether Humphrey's Executor was wrongly decided & should be overruled.

#law #ActivistCourt

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

…The fate of the statutory protections in question rests on how #SCOTUS treats Humphrey's Executor & related rulings. In the 1935 ruling, the court upheld for-cause removal protections for FTC members, faulting Roosevelt's firing for policy differences.

In that decision, SCOTUS said restricting a president's removal was lawful because that agency performed tasks more closely resembling #legislative & #judicial functions, rather than those belonging squarely to the #ExecutiveBranch.

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

The #Constitution set up a #SeparationOfPowers among the federal government's #coequal #executive, #legislative & #judicial branches.

Proponents of a *conservative* legal doctrine called the "#UnitaryExecutive" theory that envisions vast executive authority for a president portray Humphrey's as wrongly decided. They argue that #ArticleII gives a president sole authority over the executive branch, including the power to fire heads of #independent agencies despite protections under #law.

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

#SCOTUS in recent decades narrowed the reach of Humphrey's Executor but stopped short of overruling it. In a 2020 ruling that upheld Humphrey's, it said #ArticleII gives the president the general power to remove heads of agencies at will, but that the Humphrey's Executor decision had carved out an exception that allowed for-cause removal protections for *certain multi-member, expert agencies*.

[2020 case was Seila Law LLC v CFPB. The June 29, 2020 decision was 5–4]

#law #ActivistCourt #Trump

Grandpa Don Apr 29, 2025

@Nonilex
This afmi is exhausting just to read about. Your work to read, understand, and explain is priceless. Thank you!

Nonilex Apr 29, 2025

What is “afmi”?

TC Won't Give In To Lies Apr 29, 2025

At least 5 SCOTUS justices have no trouble appearing to legislate from the bench (or lie under oath about their willingness to do so)

Grassroots Joe Apr 29, 2025

@TCatInReality @Nonilex

Often using conflicting legal logic and ignoring precedent when they feel like it and employing made up regressive-right legal doctrine to legislate from the bench.

TC Won't Give In To Lies Apr 29, 2025

@joeinwynnewood @Nonilex

😁