President Donald Trump can fire employees of federal regulatory agencies without cause, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The high court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Trump administration in Trump v. Slaughter. Rebecca Slaughter filed the lawsuit against the president and other executive branch officials, arguing she was wrongly fired as a member of the Federal Trade Commission in March 2025.
The court had to decide whether it would uphold Humphrey's Executor, a precedent from a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1935 that protected employees of federal regulatory agencies from at-will termination. For the past 91 years, courts have protected the independence of federal regulators by pointing to the case.
In Trump v. Slaughter, the majority opinion said the "Humphrey's framework has not withstood the test of time" and the court therefore overrules it.
"The FTC unquestionably exercises executive power" by enacting substantive rules that carry the force of law, enforcing statutes, and investigating and suing businesses on behalf of the country. It therefore must "be controlled by the Chief Executive," the majority opinion says.
Barring the president from firing regulatory employees at will is a breach of separation of powers the majority said. Neither the judicial nor the legislative branches can burden the president to retain those "with whom he cannot work."
Trump fired Slaughter last year because her work was "inconsistent with the administration's priorities," according to the email that notified her of her immediate termination. Slaughter, a Democrat, was appointed by Trump in his first term and confirmed by the Senate in 2018. She was a critic of the second Trump administration's downsizing of the federal government and a proponent of antitrust regulation.
The Supreme Court's decision to OK her firing represents an expansion of presidential power over the executive branch. Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday that the case is "greatly increasing Presidential Power at a time when it is most needed!"
Other federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, are now "subject to partisan whims," Graham Steele, a fellow at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance and former assistant secretary of financial institutions at the Treasury Department, said during a call with reporters on Monday.
"Over time, financial regulation will continue this trend of increasingly partisan regulation," Steele said. "That will lead to more financial and economic inequality" and "jeopardize" the safety and soundness of the financial system.
Write to emily.russell@barrons.com.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2026 12:18 ET (16:18 GMT)
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