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The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning! The D.C. Circuit will weigh a key test of presidential power today. Plus, a hearing is set in a lawsuit over “Signalgate,” Anthropic's lawyers at Latham took the blame for an AI mistake, and, through the lens of an FTC case, Jenna Greene dives into what civil rights enforcement could look like for the next four years. Have a great weekend!

D.C. Circuit to weigh Trump's powers to fire Democrats from federal agencies

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Today, the D.C. Circuit will consider whether President Trump can remove Democratic members from two federal labor boards, a key test of the president's efforts to reshape federal agencies. Here’s what to know.

The arguments concern the Trump administration's appeal of separate rulings by two judges that reinstated Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board.
Today’s arguments are likely to focus on the significance of a 1935 Supreme Court ruling known as Humphrey's Executor, which upheld removal protections for FTC members after President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to fire one. Harris and Wilcox say the ruling applies to their cases because the labor boards have a structure similar to the FTC.
Many conservative judges and lawyers have in recent years called the scope of Humphrey's Executor into question. That includes D.C. Circuit Judges Gregory Katsas and Justin Walker, Trump appointees who are on today's panel. Both judges in separate recent opinions said Humphrey's Executor merely created a narrow exception to the president's broad removal powers. The panel also includes Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee.
The cases may serve as potential proxies for whether Trump has the authority to fire Federal reserve officials, and the court’s ruling could set important precedent on the scope of the president's powers to fire officials at a range of multi-member agencies.
The ruling could also tee up review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which temporarily paused the lower court rulings last month.
The arguments will be streamed here.

Coming up today

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in D.C. will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by liberal-leaning government watchdog group American Oversight alleging Trump officials violated federal record-keeping laws by using a Signal group chat to discuss looming military action against Yemen's Houthis.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland, will hold a hearing to discuss the DOJ’s bid to shield information from lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the Trump administration wrongly deported from Maryland to a prison in El Salvador. The government has asserted the state secrets privilege and other bars to keep details from Abrego Garcia’s attorneys in his lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan will hold a teleconference to discuss the DOJ's anticipated motion to dismiss a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The New York Times that seeks the production of a copy of the unreleased second volume of the final report former Special Counsel Jack Smith prepared on President Trump's retention of classified records after he left office in his first term.
Several education research and advocacy organizations represented by Public Citizen and the Legal Defense Fund will urge U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in D.C. to block the Trump administration from dismantling the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences and restrict the collection and dissemination of federal education data.
Hadi Matar, who was found guilty of attempted murder of novelist Salman Rushdie, will be sentenced in a New York courtroom.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

Jackson Walker agreed to pay $100,000 to one of its bankruptcy clients, a third such deal since April, to resolve claims that it failed to disclose a secret romance between one of its partners and former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones. Read this week's Billable Hours.
The California State Bar revealed scoring errors on its February bar exam that led to failing scores for four test takers, even though they actually passed, marking the latest issue in the disastrous test.
India issued stricter rules for foreign lawyers flying in for client work. Read more about them here.

$0.01

That's how much Southwest Airlines is likely to pay to resolve a lawsuit by the conservative group American Alliance for Equal Rights, which claimed the airline’s now-defunct program awarding free flights to Hispanic college students was discriminatory. Read more.