On Monday, President Trump sealed one of the most lasting parts of his legacy. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court reaffirmed and reinforced the authority of presidents to determine who will carry out the functions of the executive branch. In so doing, the court overruled one of the longstanding limits of presidential power in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
Humphrey’s Executor is hardly a household name. Yet the demise of the 1935 case represents a seismic shift in the balance of power within our constitutional system.
In this case, the court decided that Trump had the right to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a commissioner with the Federal Trade Commission.
For decades, scholars and jurists have questioned where the court found the authority for Congress to create a hybrid creature like the FTC — part legislative and part executive, with officials protected from removal by the president.
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