WASHINGTON — President Trump acted lawfully when he fired former Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter last year without cause, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, finding legal protections against such dismissals unconstitutional.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the 6-3 opinion and overturned past precedent restricting presidents from carrying out such firings.
“Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work,” Roberts wrote.
“Subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people.”
Trump had moved to fire both Slaughter, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and her fellow Democratic commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in March of last year, with the White House arguing their continued service was “inconsistent with [the] Administration’s priorities.”
Slaughter sued, arguing the administration had flouted the Federal Trade Commission Act, which states that the president may only remove commissioners for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
A DC federal judge and appeals court panel ruled that Slaughter was wrongly fired, but the Supreme Court stayed those decisions in September 2025.
During oral arguments, the court grappled with the precedent set by the 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, in which the justices unanimously ruled that Congress could limit the president’s ability to fire government officials, despite their status as chief executive.
That decision has since been attacked by conservative legal analysts who argued that it unconstitutionally infringed on the president’s Article II powers and created an unaccountable administrative state.
During oral arguments, Roberts raised a more practical point: That Humphrey’s Executor concerned “an agency that had very little, if any, executive power” compared to its current status.
During Trump’s second term, the Supreme Court has given the president a string of temporary wins on its motions docket for many cases involving his attempts to fire high-level government officials. Those temporary decisions usually aren’t explained.
