Trump Gets More Power As Supreme Court Lets Him Fire Independent Officials

2 hours ago 3

Topline

The Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump on Monday to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, upending a 90-year-old precedent and greatly expanding the president's authority over historically independent federal agencies.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press in Washington, DC, on June 24.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump can fire Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter—and similar independent board members by extension—meaning Trump can broadly fire employees that have historically enjoyed greater insulation from political interference.

Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter sued the Trump administration over the president’s decision to fire her, arguing it violated longstanding court precedent that keeps presidents from firing members of independent boards without just cause.

The court ruled those “for cause” protections are “contrary” to the Constitution’s separation of powers and that presidents have ultimate control over such federal officials, writing, “To remain accountable to the President, those officers must be removable by the President.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 1935 in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that members of independent boards can only be fired due to major issues with their job performance, in order to preserve their independence from political interference.

Justices overturned that longstanding precedent Monday, arguing Humphrey’s Executor “has not withstood the test of time” and “has for decades been a result in search of a rationale.”

Key Background

The Supreme Court’s ruling comes after justices had already allowed Trump to fire multiple independent board members even before it decided the fate of the Humphrey’s Executor precedent, including officials on the National Labor Relations Board, Merit Systems Protection Board and Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Humphrey’s Executor ruling in the 1930s was based on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s firing of Federal Trade Commissioner William Humphrey. Humphrey died a year after the decision, and his estate sued the federal government for back pay, arguing he was unlawfully fired because it wasn’t for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office”—which justices agreed with. Justices have historically upheld Humphrey’s Executor, and the Supreme Court hadn’t said much about the precedent in recent months, even as it allowed Trump to fire officials despite the longstanding ruling. The last major case that dealt with the precedent came in 2020, when the court ruled the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was not covered under the heightened standard for firing federal officials.