Follow up to Supreme Court rules Trump can fire leaders of independent agencies, this article predates the decision and provides insight into the magnitude of consequences that will cascade as as a result:  Partnership for Public Service, Chris Piper: “Since returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump has taken unprecedented steps to consolidate authority over independent federal boards and commissions like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Trade Commission. By firing members protected by statute, eliminating bipartisan representation and abandoning long-standing appointment norms, Trump has moved to bring these institutions that Congress designed to operate independently under direct presidential control.  Independence does not fail along a single dimension. It collapses when legal constraints are weakened, compositional safeguards are bypassed and governing norms are abandoned simultaneously—allowing each breach to reinforce the others. In just over a year, Trump has fired or attempted to fire 20 board or commission members who have “for-cause” protections—legal provisions that permit removal only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” He has also fired 16 Democratic members across 11 partisan-balanced bodies that do not have “for cause” protections—leaving nearly 40% of such entities without any Democratic membership. In some cases, Trump’s firings and additional resignations have left boards without the necessary quorum to function. At the same time, pending Supreme Court cases, including Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, could further weaken the legal basis for independence by narrowing or eliminating for-cause removal protections. The structures intended to enable independence only work when they are respected in practice and upheld in law. When they break down, the consequences are concrete: regulatory decisions get made without thorough deliberation, institutional expertise is sidelined, the balance of power Congress built into these bodies collapses into single-party or even single-official control, and, in some instances, critical decision and policymaking stalls. The costs fall on ordinary Americans—they aren’t warned of newly identified hazards, they navigate regulations shaped by political pressure rather than scientific consensus and they worry they cannot trust the independence or outcomes of boards and commissions…”