Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday to allow President Donald Trump to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) without citing due cause, upending decades of precedent that restricted presidents from removing political appointees from independent commission boards.

Commissioners of the FTC Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, both of whom were appointed by Democrats, were fired by Trump early in his second presidential term. Trump did not identify a reason for doing so, stating only that their “continued service on the FTC [was] inconsistent with [his] Administration’s priorities.”

Slaughter sued, arguing her removal violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and that it went against a 1935 Supreme Court ruling called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. That decision found that presidents are limited from removing political appointees to independent commissions without just cause.

In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, the conservative-controlled Supreme Court sided with Trump, overturning Humphrey’s findings and ruling that presidents could indeed fire independent commissioners without giving proper reason, even those laid out as necessary by Congress in the establishment of those commissions.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion in the ruling, stating that the previous provisions “deviate” from the “model of Presidential supervision” that is supposed to occur under the Constitution.

SCOTUS Ruling Limits Ability to Sue Pesticide Companies for Illness or Injury

Our Constitution creates three branches, but only one President. That President is not all powerful — not by any means. But he is not impotent either. He and he alone is vested........

© Truthout