Supreme Court lets Trump fire FTC Democrat despite 90-year-old precedent

The Supreme Court yesterday allowed President Trump to fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission and will decide whether to overturn a 90-year-old precedent that says the president cannot fire an FTC commissioner without cause. Trump fired Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter in March with a notice that said her "continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my administration's priorities." Trump did so despite the 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. United States, in which the Supreme Court unanimously held that the president can only remove FTC commissioners for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. An appeals court reinstated Slaughter three weeks ago, with judges finding that "the government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent." But on September 8, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay that temporarily blocked the lower-court ruling against Trump. The Supreme Court majority followed that up yesterday by granting a longer-term stay that will keep Slaughter off the FTC at least until the court rules on the merits of the case. The case will be scheduled for arguments in the December 2025 session. "The parties are directed to brief and argue the following questions: (1) Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U. S. 602 (1935), should be overruled. (2) Whether a federal court may prevent a person's removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law," the Supreme Court said. Kagan: Trump given control of independent agencies Justice Elena Kagan wrote a dissent that was joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor. Kagan wrote that the majority is continuing to use the court's emergency docket "to permit what our own precedent bars," "transfer government authority from Congress to the President," and thus "reshape the Nation's separation of powers."