WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump had the authority to fire Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, overturning a 91-year-old precedent that shielded independent agency leaders from removal without cause.
The 6-3 decision, split along ideological lines, formally overruled Humphrey's Executor v. United States, the 1935 ruling that allowed Congress to insulate certain multimember agencies from direct presidential control. "If anything more is left of Humphrey's, we overrule it," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, joined by the court's other five conservative justices.
Roberts wrote that "the President may remove his subordinates at will" and that the FTC "unquestionably exercises executive power, and must therefore be controlled by the Chief Executive." The ruling is expected to affect roughly two dozen multimember federal agencies, according to the court's opinion.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in dissent, said the court "upends its precedent, misconstrues our history, and sheds any pretense of judicial modesty," and read her dissent aloud from the bench.
In a separate 5-4 ruling issued the same day, the court said Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook could remain in her position while litigation over her attempted removal continues in lower courts. Roberts wrote that the FTC ruling "should not be read" as affecting the structure of the Federal Reserve, leaving open the question of the central bank's independence.
Trump, in posts on Truth Social, called the ruling a "BIG WIN" and "Historic and Unprecedented." Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin said the decision would allow Trump to "fire whomever he perceives as his enemy at these agencies without so much as citing cause."
The full scope of the ruling's impact on other independent agencies remains to be determined as further legal challenges are expected.
