SCOTUS poised to grant Trump at-will firing power over independent agencies in Trump v. Slaughter

As of June 27, 2026, with its next opinion day set for June 29, the Supreme Court is widely expected to rule in Trump v. Slaughter that the president may fire members of independent agencies “at will.” During oral argument, all six conservative justices signaled they believe the president should have absolute control over any body exercising executive functions. The case arises from Trump’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter solely because her views conflicted with administration priorities. A ruling for Trump would overturn or sharply limit the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor precedent that has shielded roughly two dozen independent agencies — including the FTC, FEC, NLRB, and CFPB — from removal without cause.

The pending decision is the capstone of the regulatory-capture and executive-power arc: where the 2025 stay let Trump remove Slaughter pending appeal (2025-09-02–supreme-court-allows-trump-to-fire-ftc-commissioner-slaughter), a merits ruling would dissolve the structural independence that Humphrey’s Executor (1935-05-27–humphreys-executor-fdr-independent-agencies-removal-limit) has protected for ninety years. The breadth of the opinion is the open question — whether it reaches all for-cause agencies or stays FTC-specific — and watchers expect the administration may have a list of agency heads ready to fire the moment the decision drops. Removing for-cause protection converts nominally independent regulators (the FEC over elections, the NLRB over labor, the CFPB over finance) into instruments answerable directly to the president.