Judge blocks Spicer, Vought bid to return to Naval Academy board

A federal judge denied bids by several former Trump administration officials to be reinstated to the board of the U.S. Naval Academy while they sue President Biden for kicking them off the panel.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington, D.C., denied the motion by ex-White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought for a preliminary injunction that would forced Biden to reinstate them to the board while the lawsuit plays out, Bloomberg reported. 

Spicer and Vought sued Biden in September after he fired them from the panel, which advises the president on “the state of morale and discipline, the curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters” at the Naval Academy, according to its website.

The two were among dozens ousted from various advisory boards in early September as part of the Biden administration’s bid to remove last-minute appointees by the Trump administration. 

“The president’s objective is what any president’s objective is, which is to ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time. 

President Trump, in his final weeks in office, stocked the advisory boards with loyalists such as Spicer, Vought, former counselor Kellyanne Conway and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

In their gambit to be returned to the board, Spicer and Vought argued that their removal would “silence dissenting views” on the panel, an argument Friedrich rejected.

The two “give no indication that their views on the governance of the Naval Academy actually differ from the other board members,” Friedrich wrote in an order filed on Saturday. 

“Nor do they explain how it would serve the public interest to present advice to the president — the primary function of the board — that the president does not intend to consider,” she added.

Spicer and Vought also claimed that Biden legally could not fire them from the board, as the position carries a three-year term set by Congress, another argument the judge rejected.

“Such term-of-office provisions do not constrain the president’s removal power,” Friedrich wrote. “To the contrary, they serve only to limit the length of an officeholder’s term.”