The First Circuit remands to district the case on removing three Board members

On August 17, 2026, Caribbean Business reports that the First Circuit Court of Appeals sent back to district the dispute over Donald J. Trump's attempt to remove three members of the Financial Oversight Board. The panel - Gustavo A. Gelpí, Lara E. Montecalvo, and Seth R. Aframe - granted an unopposed motion by the federal defendants, White House director Sergio Gor and Donald J. Trump, citing the Supreme Court's June ruling in Trump v. Cook. It ordered the mandate issued at once. The case returns to Judge María Antongiorgi-Jordán, to be reconsidered under the presidential-removal framework Cook clarified.

On July 1, the First Circuit had revived the case and given the Department of Justice and Arthur J. González, Betty Rosa, and Andrew Biggs 30 days to explain how to proceed in light of Cook. That ruling blocked the removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and distinguished statutes that list causes - inefficiency, neglect, malfeasance - from those that only say for cause. PROMESA says the president may remove a member only for cause, without defining the term or requiring notice or a hearing. That analogy is Caribbean Business's, not a holding of this magazine.

The three sued in 2025. A federal judge in Puerto Rico blocked the removals. Justice holds that Donald J. Trump removed them for inefficiency, ineffectiveness, neglect, and failure, and cites some 2,000 million dollars in advisory fees and more than 250 million in consultants and law firms in the PREPA bankruptcy. Those figures are DOJ's via the outlet. The government argues that presidential judgment is not reviewable and that the public office is not a protected property interest.

This note does not resolve whether the removals are valid. The Circuit did not: it sent the file back. It is not mixed with the Puerto Rico Supreme Court's 5-4 on LUMA of August 5. Those are distinct forums.

Anyone looking for the August 17 judgment has the Caribbean Business URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: Caribbean Business. https://caribbean.business/first-circuit-remands-promesa-removal-case-ordering-parties-to-address-impact-of-trump-v-cook/