President Donald Trump said Monday that it was a “honor” to be serving as president when the Supreme Court issued a ruling that, he argued, strengthened “Presidential Power at a time when it is most needed.”
Trump, in two posts on Truth Social, celebrated the high court’s ruling in what he called the “Slaughter Case,” hailing the ruling as a reaffirmation of the president’s constitutional authority to remove officials and appointees in the executive branch under Article II. “BIG WIN at the Supreme Court,” Trump wrote. “It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers,” he wrote.
In another post, Trump said his case overturned “90 years of precedent.”
In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to essentially overturn a 1935 precedent that limited the president’s authority to remove the heads of certain independent federal agencies without cause.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the statutory protections for the job violate the Constitution’s separation of powers by unduly constraining the president’s executive power.
“If there is anything left of Humphrey’s, we overturn it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority in the decision.
The case stemmed from Trump’s dismissal of former Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a move that violated a federal law requiring “cause” for her removal.
The court ruled that presidents have the authority to fire leaders of independent agencies at will. The court applied that principle to agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The ruling is another big legal win for Trump’s effort to boost presidential control of the executive branch in a second term.
But the justices carved out an important exception for the Federal Reserve, maintaining its long-standing independence.
Separately, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook to stay on the job while fighting Trump’s effort to remove her over allegations of mortgage fraud, which Cook denies.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that removing Cook right away would essentially wipe out the Federal Reserve’s statutory protections.
But he said Trump could try to fire her again if he went through the proper legal channels.
Trump said he plans to follow that very course after the decision.
“We will be taking action immediately to ensure that someone who has committed wrongdoing is not making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!” Trump wrote June 29 on Truth Social.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented for the court’s liberal justices, saying the Trump v. Slaughter ruling gives presidents “unprecedented authority” and could threaten the independence of federal agencies.
But supporters of the ruling say it restores the president’s constitutional authority to oversee and run the executive branch, rolling back decades of judicial precedent they say inappropriately constricted presidential power.
The ruling is expected to have sweeping implications for independent agencies regulating labor relations, federal employment, workplace discrimination, consumer protection, aviation safety and financial regulation.
Ben Dyke, a commentator, called it a “bombshell” in an analysis of the ruling. “This is historic.
He also said that most of the justices are correct in returning the constitutional power to the president, who is the head of the Executive Branch and should not be prevented from exercising his powers by the Legislative Branch.
The ruling is expected to affect about two dozen multimember independent agencies across the federal government beyond the Federal Trade Commission, giving presidents more flexibility to replace commissioners and board members with appointees who share their policy priorities.
