A federal judge has reinstated two Democratic members of the National Credit Union Administration who were fired by President Trump. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, appointed by President Biden, ruled Tuesday that Trump’s April removal of Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka—both Democratic appointees to the NCUA board—was unlawful.
He noted that “the government concedes the President lacked any cause for the terminations,” and instead argues “that the President maintains absolute authority to remove NCUA Board members at will, and that reinstatement is not an available remedy.”
Ali added that “the government all but concedes” its argument “would apply equally to the Chair of the Federal Reserve and FDIC Board members,” which he said he found “unavailing.”
Trump has floated the idea of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell but has since backed off, instead suggesting he would prefer Powell to resign. Ali ruled that “Congress restricted the President’s authority to fire NCUA Board members,” and judicial precedent allows for their reinstatement.
“The overlap in powers wielded by the NCUA Board and the Federal Reserve, and their common role as financial regulators, supports the conclusion that Congress can insulate NCUA Board members from at-will removal,” Ali wrote in his ruling.
While NCUA board members had served at the pleasure of the president at one point, Congress restructured the agency to have them “serve fixed, staggered six-year terms with no more than two members affiliated with the same political party,” he explained.
