Supreme Court allows firing of FTC commissioners, ends agency independence
The Verge·June 29, 2026
The Supreme Court just placed once-independent agencies more firmly under presidential control. The court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter with a 6-3 vote that President Donald Trump had the authority to fire the Federal Trade Commission's two Democratic commissioners, even though it broke with decades of prior legal precedent at the time. The justices have officially killed that precedent, based on a 1935 Supreme Court case known as Humphrey's Executor, which determined that independent agency commissioners could only be fired for cause. The ruling represents the latest expansion of presidential power, this time under the principle of the unita …
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