WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld, for now, President Trump’s decision to fire two agency officials who had fixed terms that were set by Congress.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices set aside rulings that would have reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Both were appointees of President Biden.

The decision is the latest in which the court’s conservative majority sided with the president’s power to fire agency officials in violation of long-standing laws.

“Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf,” the court said in an unsigned order.

But the justices were quick to add the Federal Reserve Board is not affected by this decision.

“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the court said.

President Trump has threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term extends to next year.

At issue is a fundamental dispute over whether the Constitution gave the president or Congress the power to set the structure of the federal government.

In 1935, the court ruled unanimously that Congress can create independent and “nonpartisan” boards and commissions whose members are appointed by the president for a fixed term. The court then drew a distinction between “purely executive officers” who were under the president’s control and members of boards whose duties were more judicial or legislative.

But in recent years, conservatives have questioned that precedent and argued that the president has the executive power to hire and fire all officials of the government.

Shortly after taking office, Trump fired Wilcox and Harris even though their terms had not expired. They sued contending the firings were illegal and violated the law.

They won before a federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals.

Those judges cited the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision that upheld Congress’ authority to create independent boards whose members are appointed by the president to serve a fixed-term.

Trump’s lawyers say the Constitution gives the president full executive power, including control of agencies. And that in turns gives him the authority to fire officials who were appointed to a fixed term by another president, they said in Trump vs. Wilcox.

Justice Elena Kagan filed an eight-page dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“Today’s order favors the President over our precedent; and it does so unrestrained by the rules of briefing and argument—and the passage of time— needed to discipline our decision-making,” Kagan wrote. “I would deny the President’s application. I would do so based on the will of Congress, this Court’s seminal decision approving independent agencies’ for-cause protections, and the ensuing 90 years of this Nation’s history.”

The court said its decision was not final.

The NLRB was created by Congress in 1935 as a semi-independent agency tasked with enforcing the labor laws. Its general counsel serves as a prosecutor while the board‘s five members act as judges who review administrative decisions arising from unfair-labor claims brought by unions.

Under the law, the president appoints the general counsel who can be fired but board members have five-year terms. They may be fired for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office,” but not simply because of political disagreements.

Trump could have controlled the board by appointing members to fill two vacancies. He chose instead to fire Wilcox, leaving the board without a quorum of three members.

Wilcox argued there was no reason to rush to change the law.

“Over the past two centuries, Congress has embedded modest for-cause removal restrictions in the structure of numerous multi-member agencies,” she said in response to the administration’s appeal. She noted that all past presidents — Republicans and Democrats — did not challenge those limits.

The Merit System Protections Board was created by Congress in 1978 as a part of a civil service reform law. Its three board members have seven-year terms, and they review complaints from federal civil servants who allege they were fired for partisan or other inappropriate reasons.

Trump’s decision to fire Harris also left the board without a quorum.

Republicans are targeting China’s efforts to sidestep U.S. tariffs through foreign production, with new legislation introduced Thursday by House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.

The Axing Nonmarket Tariff Evasion (ANTE) Act aims to stop subsidized and state-owned entities from setting up production in other countries to avoid tariffs.

“For far too long, adversaries like China have engaged in unfair trade practices, cheated the American economy, and cost the U.S. millions of jobs,” Arrington said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

TRUMP SAYS CHINA AGREES TO ‘FULLY’ OPEN COUNTRY’S MARKETS TO US BUSINESSES

On April 2, which the White House dubbed “Liberation Day,” President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs with the intention of ending trade imbalances. Some of the harshest of the tariffs were imposed on China, which was initially hit with a 145% tariff that was later lowered to 30%. 

While tariffs seem to be discouraging Chinese manufacturers from exporting to the U.S., as evidenced by a recent Commerce Department report showing import levels at their lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic, imports have not stopped entirely.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has found ways to evade the tariffs, such as setting up production in third-party countries or by shipping goods to another country and re-labeling them before sending them to the U.S. By labeling the goods as originating from another country, manufacturers dodge the high tariffs on China and instead get hit with much lower tariffs that are imposed on other nations. This is something that Arrington hopes to stop with his legislation.

Chinese shipping containers are seen at the port of Oakland, as trade tensions continue over U.S. tariffs with China, in Oakland, California, on May 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

CHINA ACCUSES US OF ‘TURNING SPACE INTO A WARZONE’ WITH TRUMP’S GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE PROJECT

“The ANTE Act will stop highly-subsidized, state-owned businesses from using third countries as backdoors to evade President Trump’s tariffs and help ensure a level playing field for American producers and manufacturers,” Arrington told Fox News Digital.

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who is introducing companion legislation in the Senate, is also confident the bill will stop the CCP from falsifying the origins of imports.

“Communist China shouldn’t be able to dodge U.S. tariffs by slapping a ‘Made in Mexico’ label on their products,” Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “My bill closes loopholes and stops the CCP from cheating American workers and manufacturers.” 

The phenomenon of “place-of-origin washing” is not limited to large businesses. Chinese social media platforms are filled with ads offering services to help sellers avoid tariffs, the Financial Times reported. The outlet also noted that South Korea’s customs agency has seen an uptick in cases involving sellers using their country to avoid U.S. tariffs.

The national flags of the United States and China flutter at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on April 25, 2024 in Shanghai. (Photo by Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images)

Under U.S. law, goods must undergo “substantial transformation” in a country to qualify as originating from there. The transformation must significantly add to the value of the good, according to the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) website. 

As an example, the ITA writes that if ingredients are taken from several countries and turned into baked goods, the country of origin can be listed as where the items were baked, as this constitutes a “substantial transformation.” However, if produce from multiple countries is frozen and mixed in another nation, then the origin of each ingredient must be listed.