The case, Trump v. Slaughter, is one of four cases the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has agreed to review this term
By Catholics for Catholics
In a case that could change the landscape for federal agencies, the Supreme Court announced Monday that it’s prepared to give President Donald Trump another victory in his quest to merge his authority over government bureaus.
According to Fox News, the high court’s conservative majority seemed resolved on overturning or essentially gutting a 90-year-old precedent that upheld restrictions on the president’s capability to fire leaders of independent agencies across the executive branch.
For nearly three hours the justices heard the arguments in the case, which were focused on the legality of Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter — a Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission — who was sacked by the president without cause and years before the end of her term.
Slaughter countered by suing, citing protections under the Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 Supreme Court decision that permitted Congress to protect specific federal regulators from being terminated without cause.
The judges for the conservative 6-3 majority appeared primed to side with Trump in permitting him to carry on with firing Slaughter, despite alarms from progressive justices, who cited concerns about discarding a nearly 100-year-old precedent and eliminating more guardrails for the commander-in-chief.
Debating for the Trump administration, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, pleaded to the Supreme Court at the beginning of the oral arguments to overturn Humphey’s, which he assailed as an “indefensible outlier” and “decaying husk” of a Supreme Court decision that has “not withstood the test of time.”
But the attorneys for banished FTC member Rebecca Slaughter countered that overturning the 1935 ruling altogether would mean that “everything is on the chopping block,” both for leaders of the FTC and for other multi-member federal agencies created by Congress. Other civil servants could also be impacted, they warned.
The Supreme Court’s disposition to examine the case is an indication that the justices could be ready to do away completely with Humphrey’s protections, which have already been weakened considerably over the last 20 years.
Permitting Humphey’s to be watered down further, or overturned completely, could sanction sitting presidents to wield more authority in ordering the at-will firing of members of other federal regulatory agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission, among others, and replacing them with individuals of their preference.
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