Trump v. Slaughter
Court: U.S. Supreme Court
Date Filed: Nov. 14, 2025
Background: In March 2025, President Donald Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission. Slaughter filed a lawsuit to challenge her removal, arguing it violated a 1935 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, in which the justices concluded that presidents can only remove FTC commissioners for causes specified by Congress. The decision in Humphrey’s Executor underpins the structure of independent agencies that are insulated against direct control by the White House.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of Slaughter and ordered her reinstatement. The government appealed the ruling and requested a stay of the lower-court order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied its request for a stay, citing Humphrey’s Executor.
At the government’s request, the Supreme Court stayed the district court’s order and agreed to hear the case. The justices will consider in part whether the for-cause removal protections for FTC commissioners violate the Constitution’s separation of powers and whether to overrule Humphrey’s Executor.
Our Position: In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is urging the Supreme Court to affirm the district court’s decision, arguing that for-cause removal requirements establish important guardrails on the president’s power to influence independent agencies, including those that exercise significant authority over the economics of the news industry.
- Agency independence plays an important role in safeguarding freedom of the press.
From the Brief: “[T]he government asks this Court to ensure regulators must pay attention to the President when the President is angry — by stripping from Congress the power to insulate agencies like the FTC, the FCC, and more against direct political control. The result would be to ratchet up substantially the risk of regulatory retaliation against the news media for coverage the President finds unfair, and this Court should reject the invitation.”