Supreme Court Throws Out 90-Year-Old Precedent, Allows Trump To Fire FTC Commissioner
Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” ruling could remove roadblocks for Trump to remake the Federal Reserve by firing Lisa Cook
Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay Monday that has effectively put a 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent on the brink of being overturned. The ruling, made without explanation on the court’s emergency docket, allows President Donald Trump to proceed with his firing of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, despite a lower court and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals having blocked the action just last week.
The decision has significant ramifications for the independence of federal agencies and could pave the way for President Trump to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook.
A Battle Over Executive Power
The legal battle centers on the 1935 Supreme Court case, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which held that a president can’t fire officials at independent agencies for mere policy disagreements. The precedent established that “cause” for removal must be based on “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Last week, both U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan and a majority of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with Slaughter, finding that the circumstances of her firing by the Trump administration “almost identically mirror” the facts of the Humphrey’s Executor case. The D.C. Circuit majority, comprised of Judges Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, stated that doing anything but reinstating Slaughter “would be to defy the Supreme Court’s decisions that bind our judgments.”
However, Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, arguing that the court should have stayed the lower court’s injunction, citing two recent cases that she argued favored the government’s position. While Roberts did not provide a reason for his administrative stay, some legal experts believe his action is a significant blow to the long-standing precedent.
The Shadow Docket and Future Implications
The Chief Justice’s ruling was issued on the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket,” or emergency docket, which has drawn recent criticism from lower court judges for its lack of transparency and for setting what some consider to be binding precedent without full explanation or oral arguments.
The decision has immediate implications for another high-profile case: Lisa Cook’s lawsuit to block her firing from the Federal Reserve Board. Cook’s legal team, led by attorney Abbe Lowell, has repeatedly invoked Humphrey’s Executor, arguing that Trump’s attempted firing is based on policy disagreements rather than “cause” as defined by the precedent.
The Trump administration has now notified the court in Cook’s case of Roberts’ ruling, suggesting that the same logic should apply.
If the ruling holds, it could grant the president the authority to remove any Federal Reserve Board member with whom he disagrees on policy, potentially allowing him to reshape the central bank’s leadership and policies at will.
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