'An American president is not a king' | Judge rules Trump unlawfully fired NLRB chairwoman

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump unlawfully fired the chairwoman of a federal board that enforces union and collective bargaining rights, a judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said Trump overstepped his constitutional authority last month when he fired National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox. On Thursday, Howell granted a preliminary injunction and ordered Wilcox restored to her post on the board.

“The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law,” Howell wrote.

Howell, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Brack Obama, took issue with the expansive theory of executive power put forth by the government’s attorneys that would allow the president to fire nearly any federal employee at will. She said the Framers specifically designed the structure of the U.S. Constitution so that no one branch of government would have absolute power.

“A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell wrote – an apparent reference to an image shared by the White House’s social media last month of Trump wearing a crown alongside the words “Long Live the King.”

Wilcox is one of nearly two dozen executive branch officials who’ve sued over Trump’s decision to fire them despite protections established by Congress. Under federal law, the president may only fire members or heads of certain independent agencies like the NLRB for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Similar lawsuits were brought by Cathy Harris, the chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Hampton Dellingr, the former head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Howell’s colleagues on the federal bench in D.C. ruled this week that both Harris and Dellinger were also unlawfully fired by Trump, although Dellinger announced Thursday he was dropping his lawsuit after the D.C. Circuit ruled Wednesday night that he could be removed from his post while the case continues.

Howell, in a nod to those other cases, said Trump seemed intent on pushing the bounds of his office to test “how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme.” She noted attorneys for the Justice Department cited in their brief in this case the Supreme Court’s decision last year granting the president absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while in office.

“The courts are now again forced to determine how much encroachment on the legislature our Constitution can bear and face a slippery slope toward endorsing a presidency that is untouchable by the law,” Howell wrote. “The President has given no sufficient reason to accept that path here.”

The Trump administration was certain to appeal Howell’s decision to the D.C. Circuit. The appeals court is already considering the government’s appeal of the ruling earlier this week reinstating Harris.