A federal judge on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to dismiss a board member from an independent labor agency and agreed to reinstate her.

Trump dismissed National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox in January after he returned to the Oval Office. Wilcox sued over the dismissal, arguing a board member can be fired only for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office" and only after a formal process that includes a notice and a hearing, her lawyers wrote, per the Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., agreed that Trump did not have the power to remove Wilcox. 

“The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law,” she wrote, according to The Guardian. 

“A president who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell also said.

The Justice Department argued that a president should be allowed to dismiss a NLRB member at will to ensure "democratic accountability." 

“The President cannot be compelled to retain the services of a principal officer whom the President no longer believes should be entrusted with the exercise of executive power,” the lawyers wrote.

The NLRB was created by Congress to resolve disputes over alleged unfair labor practices. Wilcox was the first black woman to serve on the board since its inception and was confirmed by the Senate in 2023 to serve a second, five-year term.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.