Supreme Court Lets Trump Fire Independent Regulators at Will, Overturning a 90-Year Rule.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 29, 2026, that President Trump can fire the leaders of independent federal agencies at will, for any reason or none. The decision in Trump v. Slaughter overturns Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 precedent that for 90 years shielded those officials from being removed over their decisions, NPR reported. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

What the Court Decided

The case began in March 2025, when Trump fired two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, without cause. He said their service was “inconsistent” with his administration’s priorities. The law that created the FTC in 1914 said commissioners could be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

The court swept that protection aside. “If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it,” Roberts wrote. Justice Sonia Sotomayor read her dissent aloud from the bench, a rare move that signals deep disagreement.

What Humphrey’s Executor Protected

For 90 years, Humphrey’s Executor let Congress build agencies that were insulated from day-to-day political control. The idea was simple. Some government bodies make calls that should follow the law and the evidence, not the wishes of whoever is in the White House.

Congress wrote for-cause removal into the law for the FTC and agencies like it precisely so a commissioner could rule against a powerful company, or against the president’s allies, without being fired the next morning. That protection is now gone.

Which Agencies Are Now Exposed

The ruling reaches far past the FTC. Independent agencies across the government rest on the same for-cause protections the court just discarded, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Communications Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The court made one exception. It carved out the Federal Reserve, suggesting the central bank sits in a different constitutional category. Justice Elena Kagan rejected that reasoning, writing that the Fed’s independence “rests on the same constitutional and analytic foundations” as the FTC, the NLRB, and the rest. The agency Wall Street most wanted protected was the one the court protected.

That exception had an immediate winner. In a companion case the same day, Trump v. Cook, the court ruled 5-4 that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump had moved to fire, can keep her job. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh joined the three liberals to protect the Fed seat, the same coalition that left every other independent agency exposed.

Why It Matters

These are the agencies that referee the economy. The SEC polices markets, the NLRB enforces the right to organize, the FTC fights monopolies and scams, and the FCC oversees the airwaves. When their leaders can be fired for a single ruling, the agency starts answering to the president instead of the law.

This is the next step in a longer project. In 2024, the court ended Chevron deference and stripped agencies of the benefit of the doubt in court. The administration has also moved to reclassify career civil servants so they can be fired at will. Together, the three weaken the part of government built to apply the law evenly and outlast any single president.

What You Can Do Now

Use the letter below to ask your members of Congress to defend the independent agencies this ruling exposed. Congress cannot reverse the decision on its own, but it can use oversight and funding power to protect the agencies’ core work and demand answers when commissioners are fired for political reasons.
Call your senators and representative at (202) 224-3121. Tell them you do not want the agencies that police corporations and protect workers turned into political arms of the White House.
Watch who replaces the fired officials. The people the president installs at the FTC, SEC, and NLRB will decide whether those agencies still work for the public. Pay attention to the confirmation fights and tell your senators where you stand.