Overview
- During two-plus hours of arguments, several conservative justices pressed for broad presidential removal authority, with Chief Justice John Roberts calling Humphrey’s Executor a “dried husk.”
- The case stems from President Trump’s March dismissal of FTC commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter without cause; lower courts ordered her reinstated, but the Supreme Court kept her out pending review.
- Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the court to overrule Humphrey’s outright, while the court’s liberal justices warned that doing so would concentrate “massive, unchecked” power in the presidency.
- The justices also took up whether courts may reinstate unlawfully removed officials, a remedies question that could shape outcomes in related disputes beyond the FTC.
- A decision could affect roughly two dozen commissions and has particular resonance for the Federal Reserve, with a separate case on Governor Lisa Cook set for argument in January after the court temporarily blocked her removal.