President Can Fire Labor Relations Board Judges, Court Rules

National Labor Relations Board administrative law judges’ protections against being fired by the president violate the US Constitution, a federal judge ruled.

Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee for the District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his Tuesday ruling that the in-house judges’ layered removal protections amounts to a “byzantine process” that “eviscerates the President’s ability to control NLRB ALJs.”

The decision marks the first time one of the many companies raising constitutional challenges to the NLRB’s structure scored a win from a court other than the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the ...