On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 91-year-old precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which prevented presidents from removing sitting members of independent boards or commissions within the federal government.
Rebecca Slaughter, one of two federal trade commissioners fired by Trump early in his second term, will now not return to her post. The justices ruled that President Donald Trump or any future president can remove members of independent agencies or commissions for any reason that involves an administration’s ability to work with the incumbent officials who head those entities. The sentence in Slaughter vs. Trumpis the latest in a series of opinions in which the Roberts court has overruled precedent it finds to have been erroneously decided or inconsistent with established law, as it did in Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo in 2025.
“The president must be assisted by officers he can trust,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion. “Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those whom the president would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts can charge him with those with whom he can’t [italics in the opinion] work The subordinates who exercise the power of the President are subject to dismissal by him. Then, and only then, will they be able to remain accountable to the president, and the president to the people.”
While the decision represents a significant victory for the Trump administration and a major expansion of the president’s control over parts of the federal apparatus previously considered apolitical or beyond anything other than “for the elimination of the cause,” the justices in Trump vs. Cook made an exemption for Lisa Cook and other members of the Federal Reserve, citing the need to preserve the Fed’s independence from monetary policy pressures.
Roberts and the concurring majority said the power did not extend to Cook and the Fed, but, in a lengthy explanation, said it would be up to Congress to pass rules governing the appointments and dismissals of the monetary policy council. The ruling gives Trump and all future presidents great deference when it comes to commissions and boards like the FTC, the Surface Transportation Board (which overseas much of America’s rail system), the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and even the National Labor Relations Board, where Trump previously removed board members appointed by Democrats and now become permanent board members.
The Associated General Contractors of America and the Associated Builders and Contractors, two major trade organizations that represent contractors in the United States, declined to comment on the ruling, though AGC said it was pleased that its members were given clarification on whether entities like the NLRB and MSPB are functions of or independent of the executive branch in the ruling.
Construction unions across North America, which had opposed the dismissals at the NLRB when they passed, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The majority opinion also left open the possibility that Cook or other Fed board members could be removed from the Federal Reserve Board, but that any change in the way Fed board members are appointed or removed must come from congressional action. “Any changes to this scheme must come from Congress, not the courts,” Roberts wrote.
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