The Supreme Court has ruled that President Donald Trump acted lawfully when he fired the Federal Trade Commission's two Democratic commissioners, a decision that loosens long-standing protections shielding independent agencies from presidential control.
The court ruled 6-3 in Slaughter v. Trump. According to The Verge, the decision found that Trump had the authority to remove the commissioners even though doing so broke with decades of established practice.
According to NPR, the case centered on Trump's 2025 firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter without cause. NPR reports that the ruling further overturned a 91-year-old precedent that had prevented presidents from removing members of such agencies at will.
Both sources frame the outcome as having consequences well beyond the FTC. The Verge says the court has placed once-independent agencies more firmly under presidential control. NPR notes that the decision throws the independence of several agencies into doubt.
Independent agencies like the FTC were designed to operate with some distance from the White House, with commissioners who could not be dismissed simply for political disagreement. The court's ruling narrows that arrangement, giving the president broader power to remove officials he disagrees with.
Why it matters: the decision reshapes the balance of power between the White House and the federal agencies that regulate business, consumer protection, and other areas of American life, making them more directly answerable to whoever holds the presidency.