WASHINGTON — Taking up a major case about the structure of the federal government, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether President Donald Trump can fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission despite a law that limits his ability to do so.
While the court is deciding the case, a lower court ruling in favor of the commissioner, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, will remain on hold, the court said. That means she will not remain in office while the case is litigated.
Attorney General Pam Bondi welcomed the court’s intervention, saying on X that “the president, not a lower court judge, has hiring and firing power over executive officials.”
In weighing the case, the conservative-majority court will decide whether a key 1935 Supreme Court ruling called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld restrictions on the president’s power to fire FTC members, should be overturned.
The ruling would apply not just to the FTC but also to other federal agencies with similar restrictions.
“Congress gave independent regulators removal protections to preserve the integrity of our economy,” Slaughter’s lawyers said in a statement. “Giving the executive branch unchecked power over who sits on these boards and commissions would have seismic implications for our economy that