At issue was whether President Trump could remove Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission despite a federal law limiting removal to specified causes. Elizabeth Gillis/NPRThe Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 8, 2025, in Trump v. Slaughter, a major separation-of-powers case over President Donald Trump's removal of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. The dispute asked whether Congress may protect FTC commissioners from being fired at will by the president, or whether those statutory protections violate the president's constitutional authority over executive officials.
At the time of the arguments, the outcome remained unresolved. Several members of the Court's conservative majority questioned whether the reasoning behind a 1935 precedent protecting FTC commissioners remained compatible with the modern agency's substantial regulatory and enforcement powers. The case therefore carried consequences extending well beyond Slaughter's individual position.
Why Rebecca Slaughter's Firing Reached the Supreme Court
Slaughter was one of the FTC's Democratic commissioners when Trump removed her in 2025. Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, commissioners serve fixed terms and may be removed by the president for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."
Trump did not identify one of those statutory grounds. According to the Supreme Court's later account of the case, he told Slaughter that her continued service was inconsistent with his administration's priorities and invoked his authority under Article II of the Constitution.
Slaughter sued, arguing that her removal violated the statutory protection attached to her office. A federal district court ruled in her favor and declared the removal unlawful under existing precedent. After further litigation over whether she could remain in office while the case proceeded, the Supreme Court stayed the lower court's order and agreed to hear the dispute on an expedited basis. The Court's official docket for Trump v. Slaughter, No. 25-332, records the case's filings and procedural history.
The 1935 Precedent at the Center of the Case
The central precedent was Humphrey's Executor v. United States, decided in 1935 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt removed FTC Commissioner William Humphrey despite a similar statutory restriction on presidential removal.
The Supreme Court ruled against Roosevelt. It characterized the FTC of that era as exercising functions that were not purely executive and upheld Congress's authority to give its commissioners protection from removal without cause. That decision became a foundation for the legal structure of independent regulatory commissions.
The Trump administration argued that the modern FTC is fundamentally different. The agency now conducts investigations, makes rules, brings enforcement actions and carries out administrative adjudications. The administration maintained that officials wielding those executive powers must ultimately remain accountable to a president who can remove them.
What the "Unitary Executive" Argument Means
The dispute formed part of a broader constitutional debate over presidential control of the executive branch. Article II states that the "executive Power" is vested in the president and requires the president to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
Supporters of broad presidential removal authority argue that those provisions require officials exercising executive power to remain accountable to the president. Defenders of independent agencies counter that Congress has historically created multimember commissions with fixed terms and removal protections to provide continuity and some insulation from direct political control.
The constitutional question was therefore more specific than whether presidents generally supervise the executive branch: it concerned how far Congress may go in limiting a president's ability to remove officials who exercise significant federal regulatory authority.
What the Justices Examined at Oral Argument
During the December 8 arguments, the justices examined whether the modern FTC could still be treated as the type of institution described in Humphrey's Executor. Questions focused on the agency's rulemaking, investigative, enforcement and adjudicatory powers, and on whether those functions could realistically be separated from executive authority.
Questions during oral argument can illuminate issues troubling individual justices, but they are not votes and do not themselves establish the Court's eventual holding. At that stage, descriptions that the Court was "poised" to rule in a particular direction were assessments based on the questioning, not a judicial decision.
Why the Case Mattered Beyond the FTC
The significance of the dispute extended to the broader design of independent federal agencies. Congress has used fixed terms and limits on presidential removal in a number of regulatory bodies. If such restrictions are unconstitutional when commissioners exercise executive power, presidents can exercise substantially greater control over agency leadership and therefore potentially over enforcement priorities and regulatory policy.
That does not mean every federal agency has the same legal structure. Different agencies operate under different statutes, and the constitutional analysis can depend on their powers, leadership arrangements and historical foundations. The case therefore did not automatically resolve every possible dispute over independent agencies.
The controversy also fit into a wider debate over presidential removal authority reflected in earlier disputes over administrative officials. News Fusion 365 previously covered related assertions of presidential removal power in Trump Says He Has the Authority to Fire Administrative Law Judges Anytime He Wants.
Later Development: Supreme Court Rules on June 29, 2026
The uncertainty that existed when the Court heard the case was resolved months later. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Trump v. Slaughter. By a 6-3 vote, the Court held that the FTC's statutory restriction allowing commissioners to be removed only for cause violated the Constitution's separation of powers.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, concluded that the FTC exercises executive power through activities including rulemaking, investigation, enforcement and administrative adjudication. The majority held that officials exercising such authority generally must remain removable by the president.
The decision rejected the constitutional framework that Humphrey's Executor had used to sustain the FTC's removal protections. In practical terms, it allowed Slaughter's removal and substantially strengthened presidential authority over independent regulatory officials exercising executive functions.
What the Ruling Does — and Does Not — Establish
The ruling has broad implications for agencies structured with statutory protections against presidential removal, but it should not be read as making every federal official removable under identical rules. The Court's reasoning centered on officials exercising executive power, and disputes involving other institutions may present different statutes, histories or constitutional considerations.
The Federal Reserve, in particular, has received distinct treatment from the Court. Separate litigation over presidential efforts to remove a Federal Reserve governor underscored that the central bank's institutional history and structure raise questions different from those presented by the FTC. The Slaughter decision therefore should not be described as automatically eliminating the Federal Reserve's independence.
For businesses and consumers, the longer-term effects will depend on how presidents use the expanded removal authority and how the ruling is applied to other agencies. Greater presidential control can make regulatory policy more responsive to an elected administration, while critics of the ruling argue that it can also reduce the institutional insulation Congress intended for independent commissions. Those are competing interpretations of the consequences; the Court's legal holding itself concerned the constitutional validity of the FTC's removal restriction.
A Major Change in the Law of Independent Agencies
When Trump v. Slaughter was argued in December 2025, the central question was whether the Court would preserve the nearly century-old protection associated with Humphrey's Executor or give the president substantially greater removal authority. The June 2026 decision supplied the answer for the FTC: its commissioners cannot rely on the statutory for-cause protection to prevent presidential removal.
The ruling consequently changed the constitutional framework governing the FTC and created important consequences for other independent regulators. Future disputes will determine precisely how far that reasoning extends across the federal government.
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