NOW PLAYING
The Supreme Court’s decision expanding President Trump’s firing power is already headed for a test, as members of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) who were sacked by Trump indicated Thursday they’ll keep fighting their terminations.
Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka are arguing the NCUA is just like the Federal Reserve, which the high court has signaled may still be able to keep its degree of independence from the White House even in the wake of the recent decision.
“The NCUA follows in that same lineage,” Harper and Otsuka’s lawyers wrote to an appeal court on Thursday.
“The District Court found that Congress deliberately modeled the NCUA on the Federal Reserve, that both agencies perform the same core market-regulatory functions—chartering, supervision, and liquidity provision—and that the NCUA’s governing structure mirrors the Federal Reserve’s in form and design.”
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, overruled 91 years of precedent that enabled Congress to insulate certain expert agency leaders from being fired by the president at will. Chief Justice John Roberts and the other conservative justices ruled it violates the separation of powers, and the president must have the power to fire senior leaders in nearly all corners of the executive branch.
It most immediately greenlights Trump’s efforts to fire leaders at the Federal Trade Commission. But as it is set to pave the way for Trump to carry out firings at other multimember bodies across the government, the decision carves out some possible exceptions.
In particular, the Supreme Court has suggested the Federal Reserve can retain its independence. The justices have said it holds a unique role overseeing the nation’s monetary policy that has a history dating back to the First Bank of the United States.
“Our prior cases do not necessarily implicate the constitutionality of such arrangements. Our opinion today should not be read to do so either,” Roberts cautioned in the opinion.
Interpreting that potential carve-out is a fight now set to play out at the NCUA, which supervises the nation’s credit unions.
Last April, Trump fired Harper and Otsuka, the three-member board’s two Democratic appointees. It was part of a spree of terminations at independent agencies that prompted the Supreme Court battle.
“Appellees will further demonstrate that, like the Federal Reserve, the NCUA traces its institutional independence through a continuous historical lineage—from the English tradition of insulating Crown officials charged with superintending cooperative financial institutions from political interference, through the founding generation’s guarantee of independence for the First and Second Banks, and forward to Congress’s deliberate restructuring of the NCUA in 1978 to secure its place within that same tradition of institutional independence,” Harper and Otsuka’s lawyers wrote in court filings on Thursday.
They’re asking an appeals court to set a schedule for them to lay out their case in writing in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s decision is already having ripple effects at other agencies.
Robert Primus, a member of the Surface Transportation Board, fired by Trump, has dropped some of his claims in the wake of the decision. He’s still pursuing arguments that his termination was racially discriminatory, however.
And at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where fired Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels has sued, the judge overseeing her case has ordered she explain later this month if the lawsuit can continue.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Donald Trump John RobertsCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Link copiedMore Court Battles News
See All
Energy & Environment Appeals court reverses order requiring removed signs to be restored at National Park sites by Rachel Frazin 2 hours ago Energy & Environment / 2 hours ago 
