Key facts
- Supreme Court declined to hear Gwynne Wilcox's appeal.
- Wilcox challenged her January 2025 firing by President Donald Trump.
- A lower court had ruled Trump's firing of Wilcox was a valid exercise of executive authority.
- The decision follows a similar June 2026 ruling on the firing of FTC member Rebecca Slaughter.
- The Slaughter ruling overturned a 1935 precedent protecting regulatory agency leaders from at-will presidential removal.
The US Supreme Court on Monday, October 19, 2026, declined to hear a legal challenge from Gwynne Wilcox, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board, regarding her dismissal by President Donald Trump. The justices rejected her appeal, which sought to overturn a lower court's decision that validated Trump's authority to fire her in January 2025. This action by the Supreme Court follows a similar ruling in June 2026, where it supported Trump's dismissal of Rebecca Slaughter, a member of the Federal Trade Commission. The court's decision in the Slaughter case overturned a 1935 precedent that had limited the president's power to remove certain agency leaders at will, a move seen as strengthening presidential control over government agencies. Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB, was appointed by former President Joe Biden and was fired by Trump early in his second term. Her lawsuit and the legal fight over other firings are considered a key test of Trump's efforts to bring independent federal agencies under his control.