Supreme Court Enables Expanded Presidential Control Over Federal Agencies

The Supreme Court is reviewing a 90-year-old precedent that currently restricts the President's ability to remove members of independent agencies, a rule established to ensure these agencies maintain independence from executive control. If overturned, President Donald Trump would gain the power to fire agency board members at will, without needing to prove cause, significantly expanding his executive authority. This issue emerged notably in the case of Rebecca Slaughter, a Federal Trade Commission member who challenged her firing by Trump as illegal under the current protections. Critics, including Justice Elena Kagan, warn that such a shift would reshape the nation's separation of powers by transferring legislative authority to the executive branch, potentially enabling autocratic control over federal agencies. The Supreme Court's conservative majority has signaled support for this power expansion through decisions made on the shadow docket, bypassing full public hearings or detailed legal reasoning. This development has sparked widespread concern about the erosion of checks and balances designed to protect independent government functions from partisan interference.