February 1, 2025

Trump firings tee up legal clash over congressional power

Roll Call - President Donald Trump’s firing of inspectors general and independent agency board members in the last week sets up another major legal clash over Congress’ power to put limits on the removal of federal officials, experts said.

Since Friday, Trump removed more than a dozen inspectors general and Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Labor Relations Board, which Democrats and experts have criticized as violating legal protections on their removal.

Andrea Katz, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in administrative agencies, said the firings appear to be “deliberately violating the law to provide a test case” to see if the Supreme Court will side with his efforts to control the executive branch.

“This is a very precarious moment for the legislative power, with the courts potentially kneecapping Congress’ ability to legislate what the executive branch can do,” Katz said.

Trump appears to be betting that the Supreme Court, currently controlled 6-3 by Republican appointees, will continue along a line of reasoning in prior cases where they expressed skepticism on limits Congress placed on the president’s control of the executive branch. More

 

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