Supreme Court will weigh expanding Trump’s power to shape agencies by
overturning 90-year-old ruling
[September 23, 2025]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider
expanding President Donald Trump's power to shape independent agencies
by overturning a nearly century-old decision limiting when presidents
can fire board members.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court also allowed the Republican president
to carry out the firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the
Federal Trade Commission, while the case plays out.
It's the latest high-profile firing the court has allowed in recent
months, signaling the conservative majority could be poised to overturn
or narrow a 1935 Supreme Court decision that found commissioners can
only be removed for misconduct or neglect of duty. The majority has
previously indicated that the president likely has the power to remove
board members at will, with some exceptions, because those agencies
exercise executive power.
They have suggested the Federal Reserve might be different, however, a
prospect expected to be tested by the case of fired Fed Governor Lisa
Cook.
Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown
Jackson, dissented from the decision allowing Slaughter’s firing. It
comes after similar decisions affecting three other independent
agencies.
“Congress, as everyone agrees, prohibited each of those presidential
removals,” Kagan wrote. “Yet the majority, stay order by stay order, has
handed full control of all those agencies to the President.”
The justices are expected to hear arguments in December over whether to
overturn a 90-year-old ruling known as Humphrey’s Executor.
In that case, the court sided with another FTC commissioner who was
fired by Franklin D. Roosevelt as the president worked to implement the
New Deal. The justices unanimously found commissioners can be removed
only for misconduct or neglect of duty.
That decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies
charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination and
public airwaves. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists
who argue such agencies should answer to the president.
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One
while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md. after attending a memorial
for conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Ariz., Sunday,
Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The Justice Department argues Trump can fire board members for any
reason as he works to carry out his agenda. “The President and the
government suffer irreparable harm when courts transfer even some of
that executive power to officers beyond the President’s control,”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.
He also argued that judges don't have the power to reinstate people.
Justice Neil Gorsuch struck a similar note in February, writing that
fired employees who win in court can likely get back pay, but not
reinstatement.
But Slaughter’s attorneys say that if the president can fire
congressionally confirmed board members at will, regulatory
decisions will be based more on politics than their expertise.
“Congress gave independent regulators removal protections to
preserve the integrity of our economy," her attorneys said in a
statement. “Giving the executive branch unchecked power over who
sits on these boards and commissions would have seismic implications
for our economy that will harm ordinary Americans.”
The court will hear arguments unusually early in the process, before
the case has fully worked its way through lower courts.
The court rejected a push from two other board members of
independent agencies who had asked the justices to also hear their
cases if they took up the Slaughter case: Gwynne Wilcox, of the
National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, of the Merit
Systems Protection Board. Those cases will continue to work their
way through the lower courts.
The FTC is a regulator enforcing consumer protection measures and
antitrust legislation. The NLRB investigates unfair labor practices
and oversees union elections, while the MSPB reviews disputes from
federal workers.
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