Supreme Court sets date to hear FTC Slaughter case in test of Trump’s firing powers

The Supreme Court on Friday set a Dec. 8 date to hear oral arguments in a case centered on President Donald Trump’s authority to fire heads of independent agencies without cause.

This closely watched court fight could overturn a longstanding court precedent and further expand executive branch powers. At issue is Trump’s attempted firing of Rebecca Slaughter, the lone Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission. Trump fired Slaughter and another Democratic member of the FTC in March, though that commissioner has since resigned. 

Slaughter sued earlier this year to block her removal, and a lower court judge ordered her temporarily reinstated to her role on the FTC while the case continued to play out on its merits.

The Trump administration appealed the case to the Supreme Court in September. The justices agreed to hear the case and stayed the lower court ruling that ordered her reinstated — allowing Trump, for now, to proceed with Slaughter’s removal from the FTC.

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The court’s willingness to take up the case is seen by many as a sign that the justices plan to revisit the Supreme Court precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States — a 1935 case in which justices unanimously blocked presidents from removing the heads of independent regulatory agencies without cause, and only in limited circumstances.

Justices signaled as much in their directions to lawyers for the Trump administration and Slaughter. 

They ordered both parties to address two key questions in their briefs: whether the removal protections for FTC members “violates the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor, should be overruled,” and whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office, “either through relief at equity or at law.”

Their review of the case also comes as justices have grappled with a flurry of lawsuits filed this year by other Trump-fired Democratic board members, including by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris, two Democratic appointees who were abruptly terminated by the Trump administration this year. 

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The Supreme Court in May granted Trump’s request to remove both Wilcox and Harris from their respective boards while lower court challenges played out, though the high court did not invoke the Humphrey’s Executor precedent in the short, unsigned order.

It also comes as the Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments in another key case centered on Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, with oral arguments set for January.

The court’s approach in the Slaughter case may signal how it will handle arguments in Trump’s attempt to oust Cook the following month.