Overview
- The Supreme Court, which issued the decisions on June 29, 2026, held in Trump v. Slaughter that statutory for‑cause removal limits on Federal Trade Commission commissioners are unconstitutional and upheld President Trump’s March 2025 firings of Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya.
- A six‑justice majority authored by Chief Justice John Roberts expressly overruled the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor precedent that had insulated multimember commissions from at‑will presidential removal.
- In a separate opinion, the Court preserved the Federal Reserve’s statutory for‑cause removal protection in Trump v. Cook, creating a narrow carve‑out whose full scope the justices left unresolved.
- The decisions place many independent regulators — including the SEC, CFTC, NLRB, FCC and others — at greater risk of rapid turnover and policy shifts because commissioners can now be removed at the president’s pleasure.
- The rulings raise immediate questions for scientists, markets, and lawyers about politicization of grantmaking and regulation and invite further litigation and potential congressional fixes on inferior officers, civil‑service safeguards, and the limits of the Fed exception.