President Trump’s efforts to expand control over independent agencies tees up a new test of presidential power that is already making its way through the courts.

This week, the president signed an executive order that requires independent agencies to submit proposed regulations to the White House for review, and Trump has fired several Democratic appointees at the various bodies since taking office.

The moves erode those agencies’ traditional insulation from the political impulses of the White House, instead advancing the so-called unitary executive theory, which provides the president total control over the executive branch.

Legal observers anticipate it could set the stage for the Supreme Court to overturn its 90-year-old precedent, called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, that has enabled Congress to protect certain independent agency leaders from termination without cause.

“Humphrey’s Executor, I think, is on the chopping block,” Ben Flowers, Ohio’s former solicitor general, said at an event last week hosted by the conservative Federalist Society.

In the latest signal the new administration is prepared to aggressively fight any legal challenges, the Justice Department quickly brought an emergency motion to the high court seeking to greenlight Trump’s firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

The Supreme Court on Friday declined Trump’s demand, for now, by punting it.

But other lawsuits waiting in the wings filed by Democratic appointees fired by Trump at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) muay reach a different fate. Those........

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