The Supreme Court has expanded the president’s authority over independent agencies, ruling against former Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who was fired by President Donald Trump last year.
In a 6-3 ruling, the justices argued that at-will removal protections for members violates the Constitution’s separation of powers.
“The FTC unquestionably exercises executive power, and must therefore be controlled by the Chief Executive, in whom such power is vested. It follows, then, that Slaughter served as the President’s subordinate at the FTC—and that the President was entitled to cut her tenure short,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion in the case of Trump v. Slaughter.