On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States (the Court) struck down Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the nearly century-old precedent that restricted presidential authority to fire independent agency officers at will. The Court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter, in which a former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
federal agencies
SCOTUS Stays Federal Appeals Court Order Reinstating Fired FTC Commissioner; Fourth Circuit Oral Argument on CPSC Firings Tentatively Scheduled


On September 8, 2025, once again, the question of the President’s authority to terminate, without cause, commissioners of independent agencies, was examined in federal court and appealed to the Supreme Court, and once again, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) overruled the court of appeals and granted a temporary stay of that court’s…
Supreme Court Stays Reinstatement of CPSC Democratic Commissioners


The U.S. Supreme Court gave a strong signal that it will likely overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 90-year-old case which held that Congress may restrict the President’s authority to terminate officials at independent federal agencies without cause.
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Update: Trump Asks Supreme Court to Rule on Authority to Remove CPSC Commissioners


In an important development since our June 24, 2025 article, on July 1, 2025, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s motion to stay a district court’s decision reinstating three Democratic commissioners to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Immediately after the Fourth Circuit’s decision, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted…