The Supreme Court expanded President Trump’s power to fire leaders of independent federal agencies in a landmark 6-3 decision on June 29, while carving out a crucial exception for the Federal Reserve by blocking his attempt to remove Governor Lisa Cook in a separate 5-4 ruling.
In the first case, the Court upheld Trump’s March 2025 firing of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who was removed without cause despite a federal law requiring “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office” as grounds for dismissal. The decision struck down Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 91-year-old precedent that had shielded independent agencies from presidential removal at will.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that “subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him.” He argued that the FTC’s modern role—enforcing nearly 80 statutes across the economy—constitutes executive power that falls under presidential control. “If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, the Court overrules it,” Roberts stated.
The Humphrey’s Executor precedent, established in 1935 following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to remove an FTC commissioner over ideological disagreements, had held unanimously that independent agencies perform “quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative” duties beyond pure executive power. That 91-year foundation crumbled under the conservative majority’s reasoning that independent agencies are not truly independent.
The practical effect transforms FTC commissioners into at-will employees serving at the president’s pleasure. The ruling also effectively ends Congress’s requirement that the FTC remain bipartisan—no single party can hold more than three of five seats. With only Republican commissioners now on the FTC after Trump’s firings, future presidents face no legal obstacle to maintaining single-party control.
The decision threatens protections at other agencies Congress created to insulate from direct presidential influence, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, where Trump has already removed Democratic appointees.
However, the Court drew a distinct line around the Federal Reserve. In a 5-4 ruling the same day, the justices blocked Trump’s removal of Lisa Cook, Federal Reserve Governor. Roberts acknowledged that “not all offices created by Congress necessarily come with executive power,” specifically citing the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as an exception to the broad presidential removal authority.
Cook can remain in her post while litigation continues in lower courts over Trump’s August 2025 firing of her, which was based on allegations of mortgage fraud that she has denied and for which she has not been charged. The Court’s decision preserves, for now, the Fed’s independence—a principle the majority emphasized as distinct from other independent agencies.
The three liberal justices dissented sharply from the FTC ruling. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision “gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws.”
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the FTC commissioner whose firing triggered the case, previously told NPR that agency independence matters fundamentally. “Independence allows the decision-making that is done by these boards and commissions to be on the merits, about the facts, and about protecting the interests of the American people,” she said.
Sources
- NPR — Supreme Court decision overturning Humphrey’s Executor, 6-3 vote upholding Trump’s FTC firing, Federal Reserve exception details
- The New York Times — Dual rulings on presidential firing power and Federal Reserve independence
- SCOTUSblog — Court’s 5-4 decision preventing Cook removal, precedent analysis
- Reuters — Supreme Court rejection of Trump’s bid to fire Fed’s Cook, expansion of presidential powers
- Fox Business — 5-4 decision blocking Cook removal while litigation continues
- The Guardian — Supreme Court ruling Trump can fire independent agency leaders, 91-year precedent overturned
