Cybersecurity Policy Report, Appeals Court Agrees to Quickly Rule on Fired Privacy Board Members, (Aug 5, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
An appeals court has agreed to quickly rule on whether the Trump administration’s decision to fire members of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) was lawful.
In a per curiam order issued today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit set an expedited schedule to resolve the case, LeBlanc, et al. v. U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, et al., No. 25-5197 (D.C. Cir. May 29, 2025).
The president’s removal of Travis LeBlanc and Edward Felten from the PCLOB was ruled unlawful last year by Senior Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who cited a 1935 Supreme Court precedent set in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States to support his ruling (CPR, May 21, 2025).
The administration appealed Judge Walton’s decision and won a stay from the D.C. appeals court that blocked Judge Walton’s ruling from going into effect while the appeal played out. The case has been on hold since last year while the appeals court awaited a Supreme Court decision in a similar case involving the dismissal of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Slaughter overturned the Humphrey’s Executor precedent and gave more power to the president to fire members of independent executive branch agencies.
Messrs. LeBlanc and Felten recently asked the appeals court to quickly rule in their case now that the Slaughter case has been resolved (CPR, July 31).
In its order today, the appeals court agreed to the schedule suggested by Messrs. LeBlanc and Felten, setting an Aug. 21 deadline for the filing of supplemental briefs. The order also directed the court’s clerk “to calendar this case for oral argument on the first appropriate date following the completion of briefing.”
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