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The Supreme Court strengthened President Trump’s control over independent agencies in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, overruling 91 years of precedent that allowed Congress to insulate certain executive branch officials with firing protections.
In an expansion of presidential power, the ruling gives Trump the right to sack Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic appointee who took center stage in his quest to set aside constraints on his removal authority.
It formally overturns the high court’s 1935 landmark decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which laid the groundwork for certain agencies across the executive branch to enjoy a degree of independence from the White House. These agencies regulate vast swaths of American life, including labor disputes, federal employee rights, workplace discrimination, credit unions, product recalls, plane accidents and more.
“If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
Beyond the FTC, the decision stands to impact roughly two dozen multimember agencies across the government, allowing a president to install appointees who fit his political mold.
Legal conservatives have long sought to overturn the precedent, citing a violation of separation of powers. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority had already narrowed its reach in a series of recent decisions.
After retaking the White House, Trump teed up the court to reconsider the ruling by firing independent agency heads across the government despite their statutory protections. They largely won in the lower courts, which were bound to apply the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision. But the Supreme Court may overwrite its own precedents.
The end of Humphrey’s Executor involves the same agency that was its basis.
In 1935, the Supreme Court ruled Congress could restrict the president from firing the heads of certain agencies that exercise “quasi-judicial” and “quasi-legislative” functions. It blocked then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s firing of an FTC commissioner who wasn’t supportive of his New Deal agenda.
At the FTC, Congress for decades has barred presidents from firing commissioners except in instances of “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
Trump last year fired Slaughter, whom the president first appointed to a Democratic seat on the commission in 2018. Former President Biden renominated her for a new term that was set to expire in 2029.
Trump pointed to none of those causes in terminating Slaughter, instead saying that it would be “inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities” to keep her in the role.
Ella Lee contributed.
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