WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Trump v. Slaughter that the president may remove a leader of a multi-person independent agency for reasons other than those enumerated in statute. The ruling upheld President Donald Trump's 2025 dismissal of Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Clarence Thomas joined in Roberts’ opinion in part, while Justice Neil Gorsuch filed a separate concurring opinion.

"Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work. Subordinates who exercise the President's power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people," Roberts wrote.

The majority opinion rejected the 1935 Court's assertion that FTC commissioners exercise quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers which do not conflict with executive authority. He wrote that the FTC's activities fall within executive power, though the Court did not define the bounds of that power.

"If anything more is left of Humphrey's, we overrule it. Humphrey's has for decades been a result in search of a rationale," he wrote. The opinion noted that not all offices created by Congress necessarily come with executive power, citing the Federal Reserve as an example of such an entity.

Gorsuch wrote that the decision alone was insufficient to address the scope of agency authority. "It would be a grave mistake to think that step is enough on its own. The fact remains that Congress has endowed formerly independent agencies not just with executive authority, but with enormous legislative and judicial powers as well."

And now the President enjoys control over all those powers too. From here, the only sure path is to finish the journey we start today and restore legislative and judicial powers to where they belong: in Congress and the courts," he wrote."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the ruling. Sotomayor argued that the majority ignored historical precedent and constitutional text regarding congressional authority over independent agencies.

"Today, this Court undoes centuries of political practice and concludes that all three branches of Government have been acting in open defiance of the Constitution all this time. Its conclusion is wrong. The text of the Constitution, along with its history, the longstanding practices of the political branches, and the precedents of this Court, make clear that Congress may limit the causes for which the heads of Commissions like the FTC can be removed by the President," Sotomayor wrote.

The case originated on March 18, 2025, when Donald Trump dismissed FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Slaughter. Trump stated in an email to the commissioners that their continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my Administration's priorities," and that the dismissal was "pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution." Bedoya and Slaughter sued to challenge their dismissal, citing that Trump did not identify causes such as inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."

A federal district court judge dismissed Alvaro Bedoya’s case after he resigned as a commissioner in June 2025. On the same date, a federal district court judge ruled that Slaughter should be reinstated. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay the lower court's order regarding Slaughter.

The federal government filed an emergency stay application with the Court. The Court granted the stay in a 6–3 decision and later heard oral arguments in the case.

The Federal Trade Commission is composed of five members, with no more than three from the same political party. FTC members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for a seven-year term. Donald Trump appointed Slaughter to the FTC in 2018, and President Joe Biden re-appointed her for a second term in 2023. President Joe Biden appointed Alvaro Bedoya to the FTC in 2022.

The overturned 1935 precedent, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, involved the estate of FTC commissioner William E. Humphrey challenging his 1933 dismissal by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Court ruled unanimously in 1935 in favor of Humphrey's estate that the President could only remove an FTC commissioner for reasons enumerated in the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Court upheld this precedent in the 1958 case of Wiener v. United States.

In recent years, the Court narrowed the scope of Humphrey's Executor in the 2020 case Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the 2021 case Collins v. Yellen. In those cases, the Court found that statutory removal restrictions on presidential removal of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency officials were unconstitutional violations of the separation of powers principle.

Independent federal agencies are executive agencies established by statute outside the Executive Office of the President and the 15 executive departments led by cabinet secretaries. There are approximately 80 federal agencies that demonstrate characteristics of independent federal agencies.