For 90 years, independent federal agencies enjoyed a shield: their leaders could only be fired for cause. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court tore down that shield.
The case started when Trump fired two Democratic FTC commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, in March 2025 without giving a reason. Slaughter sued, arguing that a law protecting commissioners from at-will removal was constitutional. The Supreme Court disagreed.
Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the six conservative justices, said the FTC's for-cause protection violates the separation of powers. "The President may remove his subordinates at will," Roberts wrote. "The FTC unquestionably exercises executive power, and must therefore be controlled by the Chief Executive." Justice Neil Gorsuch added in a concurring opinion, "Independent agencies are not so independent after all."
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Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement, "The Supreme Court just overturned well-established precedent to greenlight Donald Trump's threats to independent federal agencies," and called it "an affront to good governance and the point of 'independent' federal agencies in the first place."
But the court left a possible exemption. Chief Justice Roberts clarified that the opinion "should not be read" to alter the way the Federal Reserve is constituted. That matters because Trump also tried to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in 2025. The Supreme Court separately ruled that Cook could stay in her job while her lawsuit proceeds.
Rebecca Slaughter, the ousted commissioner, said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" that she was "disappointed in the ruling." She said, "It takes a massive amount of power away from Congress, and to the president to shape economic decision-making in a way that will reward the rich and powerful, and at the expense of ordinary Americans." She predicted FTC policy will "unquestionably" become more political, adding, "The problem is where it becomes something that rewards political and campaign contributions, friends and allies of the president, rather than being decisions that are made on the merits."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a sharp dissent for the three liberal justices. She accused the majority of "undoing centuries of political practice" and giving the president "a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted." She argued the case should have ended with Humphrey's Executor.
President Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social, posting "BIG WIN" and calling it "one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers." He told reporters, "It gives me the right, and not me, it gives a president the right to do what the president should have the right to do."
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