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Claire B. Wofford, Associate Professor of Political Science, College of Charleston

Supreme Court ignores precedent instead of overruling it in allowing president to fire officials whom Congress tried to make independent

Can President Donald Trump -- or any president -- fire the heads of independent agencies created by Congress? Douglas Rissing/iStock via Getty Images Plus

What may be one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most important and far-reaching rulings in decades dropped in late May 2025 in an order that probably didn’t get a second – or even first – glance from most Americans.

But this not-quite-two-page ruling, as technical and procedural as they come, potentially rewrites a major principle of constitutional law and may restructure the operation of the federal government.

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