SCOTUS to hear challenge to removal power over independent agencies

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to President Donald Trump’s authority to remove members of independent federal agencies and allowed the administration to carry out the firing of Federal Trade Commission commissioner Rebecca Slaughter while the case proceeds. The justices voted 6 to 3 to take the dispute and will hear arguments in December, effectively leaving Slaughter barred from her FTC post for the time being.

The dispute centers on a nearly 90 year old precedent, Humphreys Executor v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that certain agency commissioners may be removed only for cause such as misconduct or neglect of duty. Lower courts relied on that precedent to block Slaughter’s March dismissal. In July a federal judge in Washington, D.C., barred her removal, and an appeals court kept that injunction in place. The Supreme Court’s order on Monday reversed that protection temporarily while the case moves forward.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in court filings that the president needs broad authority to remove board members to carry out his agenda and that the government would suffer irreparable harm when executive power is transferred...