President can fire independent agency heads without cause, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a nearly 100-year-old legal precedent, which is expected to enable the president to fire bipartisan board members of agencies that were established by Congress to have some degree of independence from the White House. 

The case began in March 2025 when President Donald Trump removed two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission before the end of their terms. The FTC is led by five commissioners; no more than three can be from the same party. 

Shortly thereafter, the ousted Democratic officials — Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter — filed a lawsuit, arguing that, under current law, the president can only remove an FTC commissioner “for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” They also cited the 1935 Supreme Court case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, in which the justices determined that dismissing an FTC member for differences in policy is unconstitutional. 

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in December 2025, however, the Trump administration contended that Humphrey’s Executor “must be overruled,” contending that it shields independent regulatory agencies from oversight. 

“[Humphrey’s] continues to tempt Congress to erect at the heart of our government a headless fourth branch insulated from political accountability and democratic control,” said Solicitor General D. John Sauer. 

The Supreme Court sided, 6-3, with the White House. 

“The FTC unquestionably exercises executive power, and must therefore be controlled by the chief executive, in whom such power is vested,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority’s opinion. “It follows, then, that Slaughter served as the president’s subordinate at the FTC — and that the president was entitled to cut her tenure short.” 

The court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter is expected to apply to other lawsuits filed by leaders of independent agencies fired by the president, including Democrat Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board. That agency — which is led by a three-person board, no more than two of whom can be from the same political party — adjudicates federal employees’ appeals of adverse personnel actions. Many government workers who have been impacted by the Trump administration’s downsizing of the civil service have pursued claims through the MSPB. 

Former Federal Labor Relations Authority Chairwoman Susan Tsui Grundmann similarly challenged her 2025 firing, but her term at the agency expired in January, rendering her lawsuit moot.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision “reshapes our government.” 

“​​Dozens of independent commissions are now likely to become purely executive agencies, shifting tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the president’s hands,” she wrote. 

Since the start of his second term, Trump has fired or attempted to fire 20 board or commission members who have “for-cause” protections from removal, according to an April report by the Partnership for Public Service nonprofit. 

In February 2025, the president also signed an executive order to exert more White House control over regulations from independent agencies.