In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that President Franklin Roosevelt acted illegally when he tried to fire an anti-New Deal commissioner from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC "cannot in any proper sense be characterized as an arm or an eye of the executive," declared the Court in Humphrey's Executor v. United States. "We think it plain under the Constitution that illimitable power of removal is not possessed by the President in respect of officers of the character of those just named."
But that was then. More recently, the Supreme Court has all but announced that Humphrey's Executor faces imminent judicial execution, an outcome that would allow President Donald Trump (and every president who succeeds him) to fire "independent" agency heads at will.
This week, the Supreme Court basically penciled in the date of execution when it announced that it will hear arguments in December in Trump v. Slaughter, the case arising from Trump's efforts to fire FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic appointee. The key question before the justices in the Slaughter case is this: "Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey's Executor v. United States, should be overruled."
