President
Trump’s partisan purge of Democratic NLRB officials in the late hours of Monday targeted Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the board. General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo was terminated as well.
Chair Marvin Kaplan, the NLRB’s sole Republican, and Democratic member David Prouty remain on the board.
The NLRB can’t issue decisions unless it has a quorum of at least three members, according to a US Supreme Court decision from 2010.
Trump had been expected to fire Abruzzo as a follow up to former President Joe Biden’s unprecedented Inauguration Day termination of Peter Robb, the general counsel during Trump’s first term in office. Jessica Rutter was elevated from deputy general counsel to acting general counsel, the agency announced Tuesday.
Federal appeals courts have affirmed the president’s authority to fire the agency’s GC.
But Trump summarily axed Wilcox—who was confirmed by the Senate in September 2023 to a second term ending in August 2028—in the face of the National Labor Relations Act only allowing the president to fire NLRB members “upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”
“I will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent,” Wilcox said in a statement.
The Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. US has supported removal protections for many independent agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and most notably the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors.
The board members’ shield against at-will removal has been challenged in a slew of lawsuits alleging it’s an unconstitutional limit on the president’s power.
Although the high court in recent years has rolled back statutory firing for independent agencies with single directors, it hasn’t allowed the president to fire NLRB members, the Fed chairman, or other officials on agency boards for any reason.
House Democrats who lead the Congressional Labor Caucus condemned Wilcox’s termination, calling it an “unprecedented and illegal attack on the NLRB.”
“We call on President Trump to immediately reinstate Member Wilcox,” the Democratic lawmakers said in a statement. “If he refuses to do so, we are committed to utilizing all available tools to investigate and overturn this unprecedented action.”
An NLRB spokesperson declined to comment beyond confirming that Trump removed Wilcox Monday night.
A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
