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Posted on 07/27/2026 3:14:02 PM PDT by SharpRightTurn
President Donald Trump secured one of the biggest constitutional victories of his presidency after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 91 year old precedent that had limited a president’s authority to remove officials from so called “independent” federal agencies.
In a 6 to 3 ruling, the Court held that presidents have the constitutional authority to remove officials serving in executive branch agencies, striking down key parts of the Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. The ruling immediately gives Trump the authority to remove Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat whose case became the central test of the administration’s push to restore executive power.
The decision is expected to reshape the federal government by strengthening presidential control over agencies responsible for labor policy, consumer protection, workplace discrimination, aviation safety, financial regulation, and other executive functions.
Chief Justice John Roberts made the Court’s position unmistakable.
“If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it.”
The ruling effectively ends nearly a century of legal precedent that allowed Congress to shield certain executive branch officials from being fired by the president.
Conservative legal analyst Ben Dyke called the decision a “bombshell,” adding, “This is historic.”
Dyke argued the Constitution has always vested executive authority in the president alone, pointing to the opening sentence of Article II:
“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
Supporters of the ruling say the Constitution never envisioned unelected bureaucrats operating independently of the elected chief executive. Instead, they argue, executive branch officials are accountable to the president, who is ultimately accountable to the American people.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor strongly disagreed, reading her dissent aloud from the bench, an uncommon move reserved for cases in which justices wish to emphasize their objections.
Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sotomayor argued the ruling dramatically expands presidential authority.
“The result is a President who emerges with far greater power than ever before,” the dissent stated.
The liberal justices further claimed the Court had “upend[ed] its precedent” and granted the president authority they argue “neither the People, nor Congress, nor the Constitution bestowed upon him.”
Conservative legal scholars, however, have argued for decades that the 1935 precedent itself violated the Constitution by allowing Congress to insulate executive branch officials from presidential oversight. In several recent cases, the Supreme Court had already begun narrowing Humphrey’s Executor before formally overturning it.
Trump celebrated the decision in a Truth Social post shortly after the ruling.
“This Decision was long sought by United States Presidents, dating all the way back to the 1930s.”
He added:
“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers.”
The case stemmed from Trump’s decision after returning to the White House to dismiss the heads of several independent federal agencies despite statutory protections that lower courts had previously interpreted as preventing their removal. Those courts relied on the now overturned 1935 precedent.
With the Supreme Court’s ruling, presidents now have significantly broader authority to remove executive branch officials and install appointees who will carry out the administration’s agenda, marking one of the most consequential shifts in the balance of executive power in generations.
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The head of the executive branch can remove executive branch employees?
What a concept.
That this is at all controversial is silly.
There are no “independent federal agencies”. They are all created by Congress which has oversight, and managed by the Executive. Whatever idiotic 1920’s progressives ruled the other way were in error.
You could argue the federal reserve is independent but it is not a federal agency. It is an independet, private bank. And the US Treasury can effectively destroy any power it has if the Treasury Secretary (under the Executive) so wanted.
There are only three branches of federal government
“The head of the executive branch can remove executive branch employees?
“What a concept.”
Yet it overturns a 1935 precedent.
Good.
Does the US really need wide XX Latinas?
“There are no “independent federal agencies”. They are all created by Congress which has oversight”
I think they are using “independent federal agencies” in the sense of outside the federal executive departments (those headed by a Cabinet secretary) and the Executive Office of the President. So this is a departure of a long-standing principle.
“”That this is at all controversial is silly.””
***
Notice... that it’s always only controversial if/when there’s a Republican in the WH.
“Does the US really need wide XX Latinas?”
Certainly not!
If they are headed by a Cabinet Secretary, then that Secretary serves at the pleasure of the President... as would, seemingly, everyone underneath the Cabinet Secretary. As this new ruling pretty much makes clear.
Or maybe I read your post backwards and you meant those agencies outside of the Cabinet... but off the top of my head I don’t know of any. Like FAA serves under the Transportation Secretary. The FCC and the FEC and whatever other agencies you can think of... they cannot and should not be “independent”. They gotta have a boss and that boss has to be chosen by the people via representative republicanism. These are not lifetime sinecures.
I wish POTUS could get rid of the Senate majority leader Thune, RINO SD.
The heads of the EAC Election Assistance Commission have been removed. But 65 employees remain to do what they have always done, which is to offer FREE MONEY to state & local election officials. The the local officials need to do is hire the “approved” voting system contractors....known in the old days as FOD...Friends of Dodd.
In other words the deep state has a new boss?
If it were a Democrat POTUS there would be cheers from the media.
>> This could turn out to be a very big deal.
Yes, indeedy!
Something GOOD for a change comes out of our somewhat fickle “conservative court”.
>> In other words the deep state has a new boss?
Yeah, some guy, I forget his name, used to have a teevee show where he said “You’re FIRED!” a lot. Should be fun to watch.
“I wish POTUS could get rid of the Senate majority leader Thune, RINO SD.”
You and me both.
This was news a month ago.
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