The Supreme Court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump has the authority to fire Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
The 6-3 ruling gave President Trump and future presidents the power to fire members of supposedly independent federal agencies that perform functions under the executive branch of government.
A majority of all six conservative justices ruled that the FTC’s provision that allows the president to remove commissioners for cause “violates the constitutional separation of powers.”
“After all, independent agencies are not all that independent,” conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion with the majority.
The decision effectively overturns an important Supreme Court precedent known as Humphrey’s Executioner, which protected members of independent agencies from being fired by the president.
President Trump fired Commissioner Slaughter and another Democratic commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, in March 2025. Mr. Slaughter and Mr. Bedoya then sued Mr. Trump, seeking reinstatement. However, Bedoya resigned from the FTC in June 2025 and dropped the case as Slaughter’s case continued.
Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“The president can remove his subordinates at will,” Chief Justice John Roberts said Monday in a majority opinion he wrote.
“The FTC undoubtedly exercises executive power and therefore must be controlled by the Administrator,” Roberts said.
However, the chief justice also noted that members of the Federal Reserve Board may be exempt from removal by the president.
President Trump tried to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook last year. But in a separate ruling Monday, the Supreme Court said she could remain on the job pending the outcome of a lawsuit against her termination that is being contested in federal district court.
The Supreme Court did not rule on whether it had the authority to remove Mr. Cook or other Fed directors.
“Our comments today (on the Slaughter matter) should not be construed as affecting the structure of the Federal Reserve System,” Roberts wrote.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent, saying, “Perhaps worst of all, today’s court has forgotten its position,” and that “the majority is reorganizing the government.”
“Today, this court invalidates centuries of political practice,” Sotomayor wrote.
“The court has given the president powers unknown even to the British royal family whose founders rebelled,” she wrote, “and this case began and should have ended with Humphrey’s execution, a unanimous decision of this court nearly a century ago.”
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