Supreme Court allows Trump firing of FTC commissioner, accepts case for December argument

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday in a 6-3 decision upheld President Donald Trump’s termination of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, at least on an interim basis, as the justices said they would expedite a review of the high-stakes dispute over the scope of executive power.

The Supreme Court did not explain its decision, but the move was in line with other recent orders by the conservative majority giving broad deference to the president over staffing of independent agencies that exercise significant executive authority.

Trump removed Slaughter — who was appointed by former President Joe Biden — without cause, citing purely policy differences.

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision citing the text of federal law, which only allows the removal of FTC commissioners for cause and a longstanding high court precedent — Humphrey’s Executor v US — which upheld those terms.

“The president cannot, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC Commissioner without any reason,” Kagan wrote in dissent. “To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humphrey’s: It entails overriding rather than accepting Congress’s judgment about agency design.”

Kagan accused the majority of effectively overruling Humphrey’s on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket without saying so explicitly or holding briefing or argument.

“The majority may be raring to take that action,” Kagan wrote. “But until the deed is done, Humphrey’s controls, and prevents the majority from giving the President the unlimited removal power Congress denied him.”

The justices will take up that precedent directly during a December hearing, examining whether removal protections for members of the FTC violate separation of powers and Humphrey’s overturned, the Court said in its order.

In a separate order, the Court declined to take up expedited appeals by Cathy Harris, a Trump-fired member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Gwynne Wilcox, a Trump-fired member of the National Labor Relations Board, both of whom are also contesting the president’s actions under Humphrey’s.

The move suggests the Court plans to use the Slaughter case as the primary vehicle for resolving critical questions of presidential power across more than 50 executive branch independent agencies and corporations.

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