Overview
- A 6–3 Supreme Court majority on June 29, 2026 overruled Humphrey’s Executor and held that the president may remove most multimember independent agency commissioners at will, ending a 91-year rule that had required 'for cause' grounds for firing.
- In a separate decision the court left in place a lower-court order keeping Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in her seat while her challenge proceeds, with a 5–4 majority saying the central bank warrants special procedural protections.
- The Slaughter opinion treats agency rulemaking and enforcement as core executive functions subject to presidential supervision and echoes the unitary executive theory, which holds that the president must control executive officers who carry out the law.
- The change exposes agencies such as the SEC, FTC, CFTC, CFPB, FDIC and NLRB to faster leadership turnover and shifting enforcement priorities, which could alter regulatory outcomes, affect markets, and prompt staffing disruptions for career agency workers.
- Expect a wave of litigation and congressional responses to define which offices remain protected and what removal procedures must include, and note the court’s invocation of central‑banking history as the basis for preserving some Fed independence.