A federal appeals court on Friday let President Donald Trump remove for now the chair of a critical “merit board” that reviews federal firings, and a member of the National Labor Relations Board, handing him a major win in his efforts to control independent federal agencies and potentially hobbling both agencies by depriving them of a quorum.

The independent agencies that protect the rights of private-sector and federal workers lost their ability to fully function after an appeals court temporarily paused rulings that had reversed their terminations by President Donald Trump.