The ruling hands presidents greater control over executive agencies and paves the way for a broader push to strip independent agencies of powers critics say belong to Congress and the courts.
The Supreme Court may have done more Monday than give President Donald Trump new firing power — it may have opened the door to a far broader challenge to the modern administrative state, the sprawling network of federal agencies that many conservatives have long dubbed the "deep state."
In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled Trump could lawfully remove Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, overturning much of the nearly 90-year-old Humphrey's Executor precedent that had protected independent agency officials from at-will dismissal.
While Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion held that the FTC's leaders must remain accountable to the president because the agency exercises executive power, Gorsuch argued the ruling raises a broader constitutional question over whether Congress can continue allowing executive agencies to exercise sweeping legislative and judicial powers.
"The fourth branch's powers still exist; they have just been reassigned to the President," Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion.
SCOTUS TAKES UP TRUMP’S BID TO FIRE FTC COMMISSIONER AT WILL — A SHOWDOWN THAT COULD TOPPLE 90-YEAR PRECEDENT
Rebecca Slaughter, commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
That observation could become the next major front in the Supreme Court's ongoing effort to reshape the modern administrative state.
For decades, independent agencies such as the FTC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Communications Commission and National Labor Relations Board have combined multiple governmental functions under one roof. They investigate alleged v
