The fracas over now-former general counsel Peter Robb’s tenure unfolded just hours into Joe Biden’s presidency. It began earlier Wednesday, when the Biden administration asked Robb to resign, the White House official said, a precedent-breaking move first reported by Bloomberg Law.

But Robb, a Trump appointee with 10 months left in his Senate-confirmed role, refused. In a letter to the White House, he called the request “unprecedented since the nascence of the National Labor Relations Act” and said his removal “would set an unfortunate precedent,” according to Law360…

Robb, a former management lawyer who was involved in President Ronald Reagan’s infamous battle against the air traffic controllers union, brought a pro-business approach to the board, which is tasked with overseeing union elections and upholding workers’ rights to organize.

Republicans decried Robb’s firing and said Biden was jeopardizing the agency’s independence. Other critics pointed out that President Barack Obama did not fire Ronald Meisburg, the board’s top prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush and served out his term, which lasted more than a year after the Democrat took office.