The US Supreme Court appeared likely on Monday to back a bid by Donald Trump to expand presidential powers and curtail the independence of federal agencies.
The case before the top court stems from the Republican president’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the regulatory Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Slaughter was dismissed without cause and lower courts upheld her claim that the move violated rules Congress put in place to protect the members of independent government agencies.
The Trump Justice Department appealed to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and a majority of the justices appeared to side with the administration during oral arguments on Monday.
Solicitor General John Sauer, representing the administration, urged the justices to overturn a landmark 1935 ruling known as “Humphrey’s Executor” that prevented then president Franklin Roosevelt from dismissing a member of the FTC.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, referred to “Humphrey’s Executor” as a “dried husk” during two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments and said the FTC today is significantly more powerful than it was in the 1930s.
Sauer said the current situation amounts to a “power vacuum” and the president as chief executive should have the authority to remove members of the FTC and the two dozen other similarly structured independent agencies at will.
“The real world consequences here are human beings exercising enormous governmental authority with a great deal of control over individuals and businesses… who ultimately do not answer to the president,” Sauer said.
“We think the text of the Constitution confers the executive power, all of it, on the president.”
– ‘Uncontrolled power’ –
The three liberal justices on the nine-member court expressed concerns that a ruling in the president’s favor would vastly increase the powers of the executive and strip independent agencies of protections from political influence.
“The result of what you want is that the president is going to have massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power,” Justice Elena Kagan told the solicitor general.
“If there’s one thing we know about the founders, it’s that they wanted powers separated,” Kagan said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal, questioned the solicitor general along the same lines.
“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” Sotomayor said.
The FTC’s primary function is to protect the American public against deceptive or unfair business practices and it has taken on Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook parent Meta over how they wield market power.
The FTC consists of five commissioners, typically representing both major political parties, with a chair nominated by the president.
– ‘Not in the best interests’ –
Trump fired Slaughter and the other Democrat on the FTC in March, opening the door for the Republican to appoint loyalists at the agency.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, said it would be a mistake for the court to allow this.
“Independent agencies exist because Congress has decided that some issues, some matters, some areas, should be handled in this way by non-partisan experts,” Jackson said.
“Having a president come in and fire all the scientists and the doctors and the economists and the PhDs and replacing them with loyalists and people who don’t know anything is actually not in the best interests of the United States.”
The Supreme Court has overwhelmingly sided with Trump since he returned to office, allowing mass firing of federal workers, the withholding of funds appropriated by Congress and racial profiling in his sweeping immigration crackdown.
The court is to hear arguments next month over Trump’s bid to fire another senior official — Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook.
The justices blocked Trump in October from firing Cook until they could hear her case contesting her dismissal.
The Supreme Court is expected to give its decision in the FTC case by the end of June.
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