Today the Supreme Court issued its long awaited decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, two cases concerning the ability of the President to remove agency officials. The Chief Justice wrote for the Court in both cases, and the results in each case were what was generally expected.
In Slaughter the Court overruled Humphrey's Executor, and held that the heads of agencies exercising significant executive power must be removable at-will by the President. This means the President can remove members of the Federal Trade Commission and other multi-member agencies previously considered to be "independent agencies." The vote was 6-3 along ideological lines. Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent.
In Cook, the Court denied President Trump's application for a stay preventing him from removing Cook from the Board of the Federal Reserve for cause. In the process, the Court rejected the argument that the President's allegation of cause was unreviewable and concluded that the statutory requirements for removal were not satisfied. Even though the underlying constitutional question was not presented to the Court, it went on to hold that the for-cause protections for members of the Federal Reserve are constitutional. Tjhe Court split 5-4. The Chief was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Jackson. Justices Thomas, Alito and Barrett each authored dissents (with Gorsuch joining Justice Alito). Justice Thomas was alone in arguing that the removal protections for the Federal Reserve are unconstitutional.
