WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider expanding President Donald Trump’s power to shape independent agencies by overturning a nearly century-old decision limiting when presidents can fire board members. In a 6-3 decision, the high court also allowed the Republican president to carry out the firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, while the case plays out.
It’s the latest high-profile firing the court has allowed in recent months, signaling the conservative majority is poised to overturn or narrow a 1935 Supreme Court decision that found commissioners can only be removed for misconduct or neglect of duty. Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the decision allowing Slaughter’s firing. It comes after similar decisions affecting three other independent agencies.
“Congress, as everyone agrees, prohibited each of those presidential removals,” Kagan wrote. “Yet the majority, stay order by stay order, has handed full control of all those agencies to the President.” The majority did not detail their reasoning on allowing Slaughter’s firing, as is typical on the court’s emergency docket.
The justices are expected to hear arguments in December over whether to overturn a 90-year-old ruling known as Humphrey’s Executor. In that case, the court sided with another FTC commissioner who was fired by Franklin D. Roosevelt as the president worked to implement the New Deal. The justices unanimously found commissioners can be removed only for misconduct or neglect of duty.
That 1935 decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination and public airwaves. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue such agencies should answer to the president. The Justice Department argues Trump can fire board members for any reason as he works to carry out his agenda. “The President and the government suffer irreparable harm when courts transfer even some of that executive power to officers beyond the President’s control,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. Courts have no power to order reinstatement, only back pay, Sauer argued.
But Slaughter’s attorneys say that regulatory decisions will be based more on politics than on board members’ expertise if the president can fire congressionally confirmed board members at will. “If the President is to be given new powers Congress has expressly and repeatedly refused to give him, that decision should come from the people’s elected representatives,” they argued.
The court will hear arguments unusually early in the process, before the case has fully worked its way through lower courts.
The court rejected a push from two other board members of independent agencies who had asked the justices to also hear their cases if they took up the Slaughter case: Gwynne Wilcox, of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Those cases will continue to work their way through the lower courts.
The FTC is a regulator enforcing consumer protection measures and antitrust legislation. The NLRB investigates unfair labor practices and oversees union elections, while the MSPB reviews disputes from federal workers.
The court has already allowed the president to fire all three board members for now. The court has suggested, however, that the president’s power to fire could have limits at the Federal Reserve, a prospect expected to be tested by the case of fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
Just burn the constitution and get it over with.
Thank god their responses are written. We won’t be able to understand a damn thing with all the orange cum in their mouths.
Yeeeeeah, about that…
The majority did not detail their reasoning on allowing Slaughter’s firing, as is typical on the court’s emergency docket.
The consolidation of power into the hands of a dictator. America is a failed state.
America is a failed state and WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS UP WITH HIS FUCKING MAKEUP
As he gets paler and more sickly looking, the contrast between the cheeto dust and his natural complexion gets more pronounced.
They want you talking about that instead of his mini-stroke mouth droop.
The emperor has no makeup.
There is no makeup in Ba Sing Se.
Yes it is
It has been for a long time, it’s just still twitching.
It’s becoming a banana republic, except the banana is money. How the turntables.
It figures that rulings which got made in the first place to hamstring a progressive get overturned to give free reign to a fascist.
I wonder what they would say if he tried to fire a supreme court judge. That would be interesting.
“When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”, probably.
I think they’ve already said he can break the law. So yes.
They are banking on a democrat never having power again. Otherwise someone will use that power against them without impunity.
You’re assuming a Democrat would grow a pair. They keep being so feckless.
If the President has full power to fire congressionally confirmed positions, the Supreme Court is next
One hopes.
In the sense of eliminating the rest of the non-dick-sucking justices… No.
Sooo… The minorities and women on the court. Are they awake!?
I mean, this is literally Clarence Thomas.
The 3 liberal women always vote against this shit, but the other two minorities don’t care. One is a black guy more fascist than any of the white guys, while the other is a devout Christian who sometimes puts her personal power over Trump, but only when Roberts and/or Kavanaugh are on board. They know how dangerous he is, and will only really stand up to maintain the court’s power; otherwise they’re yesmen for whatever Trump wants.
That 3 member bloc doesn’t care about democracy or principles, only their own power. They’re probably planning to put up strong opposition to any changes that could ever happen should a Dem take power, which is why nothing will ever be fixed until the current government collapses in totality, or someone truly radical isn’t held back by liberal institutionalism and packs the court. That might not even work out short term, but at least it might kill their chokehold over America.
Politics aside, look at that fucking makeup. Who would vote for such fucking whacko looking person. It’s outlandish to even contemplate an outsider looking in on this fucking mentally-ill psychopath.
But TAN SUIT!!!
“Trump’s friends in the Supreme Court”…
Maybe all the really wealthy psychopaths you never hear about but control everything really did fuck off to Neuschwabenland or another planet or something because this cannot be “the plan”. Even Peter Thiel has to recognize that his Praetorian Guard is not gonna be like “Yes sir, Baron Harkonnen, replace our organs and turn us into a cybernetic slave soldiers! Anything for you sir!”. They’re gonna give him the buckwheats and take over his empire like every other warlord in history.
The Supreme Court sells out again.
Gotta make sure that motorcoach gratuity gets delivered first!
Actually, no. The Supreme Court was quite clear that what makes it a gratuity is that it comes after the action. So they cannot take delivery until some amount of time after the vote.
If it came before, then it’s an illegal bribe. Timing is everything…
Ah but when it comes to bribes from Trump you gotta make sure the check clears first.
You guys know what to do right