Your Guide To The Lawsuits Challenging A President’s Power To Fire Executive Officials

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Your Guide To The Lawsuits Challenging A President’s Power To Fire Executive Officials
Since President Donald Trump reclaimed the executive branch in January, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed to halt his America-first efforts.
by Margot Cleveland
March 10, 2025

Since President Donald Trump reclaimed the executive branch in January, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed to halt his America-first efforts. These lawsuits present a variety of legal issues, from the constitutionality of Trump’s executive orders addressing birthright citizenship and transgender prisoners, to agencies’ ability to cancel federal grants, to the president’s power to fire executive branch officials.

The vast number of cases, coupled with the diversity of legal issues and the near-daily developments, make it challenging for Americans to track—much less understand—the current lawfare. To aid our fellow citizens, then, today The Federalist runs its first in a series of in-depth articles covering this litigation, beginning with the issue most likely to reach the Supreme Court first: President Trump’s authority to fire executive branch officials and whether courts have the power to order such officials’ reinstatement.
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However, Trump’s firing of other officials spurred litigation, including:

Dellinger v. Bessent, in which Hampton Dellinger challenged his removal as special counsel of the Office of Special Counsel;

Harris v. Bessent, in which Cathy Harris challenged her removal from the Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”);

Wilcox v. Trump, in which Gwynne Wilcox challenged her removal from the National Labor Relations Board;

Grundmann v. Trump, in which Susan Tsui Grundmann challenged her removal from the Federal Labor Relations Authority; and

Storch v. Hegseth, in which eight inspector generals challenged their removal from various Offices of Inspector General.

Trump also removed Ellen Weintraub as chair of the Federal Elections Committee (FEC), but while Weintraub claims her removal was illegal, she has yet to sue the Trump administration.

These lawsuits all raise overlapping issues, including: Whether Trump illegally removed these officials; whether Congress had authority to limit Trump’s removal authority; whether that legislation violated Trump’s Article II authority; and whether federal courts may order the reinstatement of officials and prohibit their firing.
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Supreme Court Precedent
Four Supreme Court cases also bear directly on the litigation brought by fired federal officials.


Myers v. United States
The Supreme Court first addressed the president’s removal authority in 1926 in Myers v. United States. In that case, Frank Myers challenged then-President Woodrow Wilson’s 1920 removal ....


Humphrey’s Executor v. United States
Although the Myers decision indicated the president had unlimited authority to remove executive officials, in 1935 in Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court seemingly narrowed the president’s Article II removal authority. ...


Collins v. Yellen
The year after the Seila Law decision, the Supreme Court considered the president’s removal authority again in the case of Collins v. Yellen. At issue in Collins was the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which was headed by a single director removable by the president only “for cause.” The court in Collins held the “for-cause restriction on the President’s removal authority violates the separation of powers,” stating that its “decision last Term in Seila Law is all but dispositive.” ....
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While these cases will continue to percolate in the lower courts in the short term, soon the Supreme Court will face the question left unanswered in Selia Law: Whether Humphrey’s Executor should be overruled.

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