Outcry over supreme court decision to grant Trump power to fire agency chiefs

Rebecca Slaughter pictured in 2020. Slaughter was fired as an FTC commissioner last year. Photograph: David Becker/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Rebecca Slaughter pictured in 2020. Slaughter was fired as an FTC commissioner last year. Photograph: David Becker/Getty Images Outcry over supreme court decision to grant Trump power to fire agency chiefs Legal and labor experts say Trump v Slaughter decision upends settled constitutional law in favor of ‘loyalty test’ As a reality TV show host, Donald Trump rose to fame with the catchphrase: “You’re fired!” On Monday, the US supreme court handed him – and all future presidents – the power to fire leaders of independent agencies or commissions, overturning 90 years of court precedent curbing executive power. While Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social as a “big win”, labor advocates, unions, and consumer advocacy groups criticized the supreme court decision on the case, Trump v Slaughter, and warned of the long-term impacts for democracy in the US. “There’s no sugar-coating Slaughter. It’s an enormously important ruling (far more important than the other three decisions handed down today). It’s a huge win for Trump/the executive. And it’s going to have massive ramifications for the functioning of the government long after Trump is gone,” wrote Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck. Trump has already fired several leaders of independent agencies during his second presidential term. He fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the agency’s board; Susan Tsui Grundmann, one of three board members at the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA); the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer ; and a board member of the National Mediation Board, Deirdre Hamilton . But it was his firing of a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter, in March last year, that led to the supreme court ruling. Slaughter said in a statement that she was fired “because I have a voice. And he [Trump] is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people.” Trump also fired another Democratic commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya. No cause was given for justifying the firings, other than noting their “continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with [the Trump] administration’s priorities”. The ruling overturns Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 ruling that the US constitution did not grant “illimitable power of removal” to the president and protected independent agency staff from potential political attacks from the president. That case was triggered by Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to fire William Humphrey, a Republican commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. “As Justice Sotomayor recognized in dissent, today’s decision abandons nearly a century of settled constitutional understanding and replaces it with a loyalty test,” stated Gary DiBianco, co-founder of the pro bono litigation corps Lawyers for Good Go