National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Gwynne A. Wilcox is out of a job, again, for the third time in less than four months.
Since President Trump terminated Wilcox from her position on January 28, 2025, as we wrote about here, Wilcox’s challenge to the dismissal has bounced between the courts, resulting in an initial order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordering Wilcox’s reinstatement, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing the District Court, and the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing course yet again and upholding the District Court’s original decision.
On April 9, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an “administrative stay” of the full D.C. Circuit’s order in response to an emergency application filed by the Trump administration, effectively upholding Trump’s termination of Wilcox, yet again. The Board is now left without a quorum for a third time, which, under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) requires at least three members. See New Process Steel, L.P. v. NLRB, 560 U.S. 674 (2010).
Chief Justice Roberts entered the order without an accompanying opinion, staying Member Wilcox’s reinstatement “pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” Chief Justice Roberts has requested Wilcox respond to Trump’s emergency application to the Supreme Court by April 15. Should the Supreme Court grant certiorari it could determine the continuing viability of Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), as well as Wiener v. United States, 357 U.S. 349 (1958), which would have implications for the firing of all administrative agency heads.
