Trump’s Labor Board Firing Sets Up Agency Independence Test Case

President Donald Trump’s unprecedented removal of a National Labor Relations Board member won’t survive a legal challenge unless the US Supreme Court rolls back a 90-year-old precedent protecting independent agency leaders, administrative law scholars said.

Trump fired Democratic NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox late Jan. 27, part of a purge of what the White House alleged were “far-left appointees with radical records” who don’t belong in the Trump administration. Federal labor law, however, explicitly limits removal of board members to instances of neglect or malfeasance.

“Under existing law, the firing is illegal,” said Sidney Shapiro, an administrative law professor at Wake ...