The Guardian: “The US supreme court has ruled that Donald Trump can fire leaders of independent agencies or commissions, ending 90 years of court precedent that curbs executive power. The vote in the case of Trump v Slaughter is 6-3, with dissents from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan. The case was focused on the White House’s March 2025 firing of the Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter. Trump fired Slaughter over email, telling her that keeping her as a commissioner would be “inconsistent with [the] administration’s priorities”. Upon her termination, Slaughter sued the Trump administration, saying she was fired without cause, and a lower court ruled for her reinstatement. In challenging Slaughter’s suit, the White House argued the court should overturn Humphrey’s Executor v United States, a landmark ruling from 1935 in which the supreme court ruled that the president unlawfully fired a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), limiting the president’s power over independent agencies. “I think by our best count, there are about two dozen agencies with a similar structure to the FTC, multi-member bipartisan board or commission with some form of implicit or explicit removal protection, and a common thread among them is that they all have some important authority in protecting market integrity, making sure economic decisions are being made without fear or favor, and I think they are all at risk,” Slaughter said during a press call on the decision on Monday. Slaughter noted that the supreme court also ruled on Monday to block Trump’s move to fire the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. Slaughter added it was “very difficult for me to reconcile Cook and Slaughter decisions in that somehow Wall Street is special and gets special treatment”.

• See also The New Republic – Sotomayor Warns Supreme Court Gave Trump the Powers of a King. The Founding Fathers “never intended” to give the president powers exceeding the British monarchy’s.
• See also Vox: The Supreme Court just made Trump the most powerful president in generations. The Republican justices just won a four-decade war against “independent” federal agencies.
• See also NPR – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a 91-year-old precedent that has prevented presidents from removing members of independent agencies at will. The decision represents a significant win for the Trump administration and a major expansion of the president’s control over parts of the government once seen as a check on his powers.
• See also Justia – Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935)
• See also The New York Times: “President Trump renewed his intention to try and fire Lisa D. Cook from the Federal Reserve on Monday, saying he would look for a way to oust her after the Supreme Court blocked his previous attempt to fire a sitting governor at the central bank. In a social media post, Mr. Trump described the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision as “procedural,” adding that he would “take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!”
• See also Law Dork – John Roberts’s 5-4 opinion saving the Fed should have saved all independent agencies
• See also Paul Krugman – The Court Sides With Dictatorship — and Chaos “…much more important is Humphrey’s Executor, which is the generations-long precedent that says that when Congress creates an independent agency, it is independent. It’s able to make decisions…”
• See also All Rise News – “…These newfound powers expand presidential powers over the “airwaves,” “financial markets,” “energy,” and “more,” Gorsuch said. The decision seems to retroactively bless Trump’s purges of several independent agencies last year, including the FTC, FCC, Merit Systems Protection Board, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the National Transportation Safety Board…”