The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the president has the constitutional authority to fire the heads of independent regulatory agencies at will. This decision effectively strips independent agencies of their historical insulation from partisan politics.
Background
In March 2025, President Trump fired the FTC’s two remaining Democratic appointees, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, before their seven-year terms expired. Slaughter sued to win her seat back, arguing the removal violated the law.
A federal district court and a divided D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals initially ruled in her favor, pointing to the Supreme Court’s landmark 1935 decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. However, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court judgments and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Decision
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, rejected the framework that allowed Congress to create independent, bipartisan agencies safe from presidential interference. Roberts wrote that the Constitution vests all executive power in a single person to ensure accountability, meaning anyone executing federal law must answer to the president.
The majority opinion noted that because the FTC enforces some 80 statutes across the American economy, writes rules with the force of law, and files massive civil lawsuits, it performs executive actions that cannot be legally separated from presidential oversight.
Justice Neil Gorsuch filed a separate concurring opinion highlighting the enormous scope of authority modern agencies possess. He warned that giving the president direct control over them creates severe new risks.
Implications
The court’s three liberal justices dissented sharply, arguing that the majority had ignored decades of stable governance and stripped the public of protections meant to keep critical economic, health, and consumer decisions free from political favoritism.
The dissent warned that dozens of other agencies—including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—will be fundamentally transformed by the ruling.
Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.
