WASHINGTON—The Trump Administration has filed a motion to stay a federal judge’s ruling that former NCUA board members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka were unlawfully removed from their positions, and must be immediately reinstated.
The case is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
As CUToday.info reported, in his decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali cautioned that siding with the Trump administration’s argument would set a dangerous precedent—one that could allow a president to remove the Federal Reserve chair without cause.
The motion to stay came as no surprise, and analysts—citing the Trump Administration’s legal battle with fired FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter—told CUToday.info they expect the D.C. Circuit Court will swiftly pause the lower court’s order reinstating Harper and Otsuka—making it unlikely the two Democrats will be able to attend Thursday’s NCUA board meeting.
As CUToday.info reported, a U.S. Appeals Court Tuesday temporarily paused a lower court order that had reinstated Democratic FTC Commissioner Slaughter, despite the White House's effort to remove her from office.
“The Slaughter case is before the same appeals court as the Harper/Otsuka case, and it is unlikely that the government would prevail on a motion to stay in the Slaughter case but not the Harper case,” said Brandy Bruyere, partner at Honigman, LLP. “This is in part because of a Supreme Court decision granting a stay of orders to reinstate members of the National Labor Relations Board, another independent federal agency. I expect the district court will rather quickly address this motion to stay the reinstatement order. The government’s stay request does not mention this week’s NCUA board meeting as any particular cause for expediting consideration, but the appeals court seems to understand that these need addressed rather quickly to reduce disruptions like an appointee going back to work for a brief period only to be sidelined again a few days later.”