DOJ Blasts NCUA Firing Claims, Cites Constitutional Ruling
The Justice Department has argued that two former members of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) board, Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka, were not protected from at-will firings by President Donald Trump.
In a motion to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the DOJ countered the argument made by Harper and Otsuka that they should be reinstated as NCUA members because the board was modeled after the Federal Reserve and thus afforded similar independence from presidential removal.
The DOJ cited Shurtleff v. U.S., a 1903 Supreme Court case, which stated that 'in the absence of [a] constitutional or statutory provision' explicitly restricting removal, the President has the power to remove an officer at will.
The DOJ also noted that Congress did not provide for statutory restrictions on the NCUA board members as it had done for Federal Reserve Board members. Therefore, the analogy between the two bodies is flawed.