Supreme Court expands Trump power to fire FTC commissioner

The Supreme Court gave Donald Trump new power to remove the leaders of independent federal agencies, ruling 6-3 for his firing of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and overturning the 1935 precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. It said removal protections for FTC commissioners are “contrary to the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.” The decision erased a long-standing barrier that had let Congress shield some agency heads from at-will removal, making it easier for presidents to push out commissioners and board members who once expected stronger job protection.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a dissent from the bench, a rare step that underscored the break with past practice. She said the court undid “centuries of political practice” and concluded that the federal government had acted in “open defiance of the Constitution.” Sotomayor warned that the ruling could bring “submission, instability, and even oppression,” language aimed squarely at the practical fallout if independent regulators can be swept out more easily when their decisions clash with a White House agenda.

The effect reaches well beyond the FTC. The ruling reaches the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, all agencies that play outsized roles in labor disputes, federal workforce discipline and consumer safety enforcement.

The ruling followed earlier emergency-docket orders in 2025 that had already let Trump remove other independent-agency officials while litigation continued. Together, those orders and Thursday’s decision give the White House more room to pressure agencies that were built to stand partly apart from day-to-day politics.

The court drew one clear line in the case of the Federal Reserve. On the same day, it let Fed Governor Lisa Cook remain in office while her challenge continues. Congress gave Fed governors staggered 14-year terms and removal only for cause, a structure the court left untouched for now.

Trump praised the FTC ruling in a Truth Social post, calling it an “Historic and Unprecedented Ruling.”