Supreme Court Sides With Trump: Grants Executive Authority to Fire FTC Commissioner

This move could “dramatically upend Supreme Court precedent.”
The Supreme Court just overturned “Humphrey’s Executor” (1935), a 90-year-old precedent that protected independent agency leaders from presidential removal without cause.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 order on September 22, 2025, pausing a lower court’s reinstatement of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as FTC commissioner and enabling President Donald Trump to remove her. The decision stems from Trump’s March 2025 attempt to oust Biden-era appointees, with Slaughter invoking the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor precedent for protection against at-will removal. The justices will hear arguments in December on potentially overturning that precedent, which could impact independent agencies including the FTC, SEC, and NLRB.

SCOTUS Blog: On Monday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter and agreed to decide on the president’s ability to fire the heads of independent agencies. The case could dramatically upend Supreme Court precedent and give the executive branch much greater authority over federal agencies…. In a pair of orders on Monday afternoon, the court granted Trump’s request but turned down the petitions from Harris and Wilcox. In its brief order in Slaughter’s case, the court directed the litigants to address two questions: Whether the removal protections for FTC commissioners conflict with the Constitution’s allocation of powers among the branches of government “and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor … should be overruled”; and whether, even if government officials like Slaughter are improperly removed from office, federal courts have the power to order their reinstatement or retention. The case will be argued during the justices’ December argument session, which begins on Dec. 1 and concludes on Dec. 10 (SCOTUS Blog).

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