The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for President Trump to fire two Democratic-appointed independent agency leaders, for now, over the dissents of the court’s three liberal justices.
The emergency order lifts a lower decision reinstating the two officials, handing the president a win in his quest to expand control over all aspects of the federal bureaucracy.
But the justices declined the Trump administration’s additional ask to immediately take up the case in full and expedite it so the high court can settle this term whether Trump could fire the two officials.
“That question is better left for resolution after full briefing and argument,” reads the court’s unsigned opinion.
Instead, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris’s challenge will return to its normal course in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It leaves both agencies without a quorum required to conduct certain business in the meantime.