Fire at Will

They had fought a king to escape that power, but today the Court handed it back.

Today the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Slaughter in a 6-3 decision that Donald Trump can fire the leaders of independent federal agencies at will, erasing a precedent that had stood for 91 years.

In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt fired a Federal Trade Commissioner he disagreed with, and a unanimous Supreme Court told him he could not. In March 2025, Donald Trump fired a Federal Trade Commissioner he disagreed with. This morning, the Roberts Court told him he could.

Those agencies referee workplace discrimination, recall unsafe products, and investigate plane crashes. Their independence rested on the precedent the Court just erased.

This is a win for adherents of the so-called Unitary Executive Theory that says all executive power is the president’s alone.

In the dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote that “the Court gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted.”

They had fought a king to escape that power, but today the Court handed it back.