Gorsuch Says 6-3 FTC Ruling Opens Broader Attack on Federal Agencies
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 30
Gorsuch Says 6-3 FTC Ruling Opens Broader Attack on Federal Agencies
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 30
Summary
A 6-3 Supreme Court ruling letting Donald Trump remove FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter may reach beyond firing power, with Justice Neil Gorsuch casting it as a first step toward dismantling parts of the administrative state.
Roberts’ majority opinion overruled much of the nearly 90-year-old Humphrey’s Executor precedent, holding that FTC commissioners must answer to the president because the agency exercises executive power.
Gorsuch’s concurrence argued the deeper issue is whether Congress can let agencies under presidential control also write binding rules and adjudicate disputes—powers he said belong to Congress and Article III courts.
The decision leaves agencies such as the FTC, SEC, FCC and NLRB intact for now, but legal scholars and conservative advocates said it maps out fresh challenges to their quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial authority.
The court did not decide how far those limits extend, explicitly leaving questions involving other bodies, including the Federal Reserve, for future cases.
After the Court's split rulings, which federal agencies can still be considered independent from the president?
With agency heads under presidential oversight, will Congress’s authority to delegate power be the next constitutional challenge?
If a president can fire regulators, can they also control official government data on the economy or climate?
Landmark 2026 Supreme Court Decision in Trump v. Slaughter Reshapes Federal Agency Independence and Presidential Authority
Overview
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a landmark 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, granting President Donald Trump the authority to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter without cause. This decision significantly reshaped the balance of power between the presidency and independent federal agencies, giving the executive branch much greater control over regulatory bodies. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the FTC exercises executive power and must be directly controlled by the President to ensure accountability. The ruling dismantled the long-standing legal framework that protected independent agency heads from at-will presidential removal, marking a major shift in American governance.