(Reuters) -A federal judge said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump lacked the power to remove a Democratic member from the Federal Labor Relations Authority and ordered that Susan Tsui Grundmann be reinstated.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., is a setback to Trump's bid to bring independent agencies like the FLRA under his control, and potentially to his efforts to drastically shrink the federal workforce.

Sooknanan's decision reinstating Grundmann gives it a 2-1 Democratic majority until her term expires in July.

The FLRA, which was created by the U.S. Congress to be independent from the White House, can order federal agencies to bargain with unions and in some cases prevent agencies from firing unionized workers.

Sooknanan said Trump's move had undermined Congress' goal of insulating the FLRA from politics.