Justice Kagan Warns Supreme Court Giving Up Power to Trump
Justice Elena Kagan warns on Supreme Court, stating the court is “overriding” Congress to hand President Donald Trump sweeping new powers. Her dissent, in fact, came after a 6-3 decision. The court, furthermore, allowed Trump to fire Rebecca Slaughter. She was a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The justices will, in addition, consider overturning a 90-year-old precedent. This ruling, therefore, limits presidential removals. The conservative majority offered no explanation. This practice is, in consequence, typical on the court’s emergency docket. It did, however, signal a willingness to revisit the landmark 1935 Humphrey’s Executor ruling.
Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote the dissent. She said the court has cleared firings that Congress prohibited. This, consequently, shifts control of key regulatory agencies to the president. “Congress, as everyone agrees, prohibited each of those presidential removals,” Kagan wrote. “Yet the majority, stay order by stay order, has handed full control of all those agencies to the President.” [Image with alt text: A gavel on a sound block representing Justice Kagan’s warning on Supreme Court authority.]
This latest high-profile firing signals the conservative majority’s intent. The court, for example, is poised to overturn or narrow the 1935 decision. That ruling found commissioners can only be removed for misconduct or neglect of duty. The justices expect to hear arguments in December. This case directly tests presidential authority. In fact, a similar case from 1935 saw the court side with an FTC commissioner. President Franklin D. Roosevelt fired that commissioner. That ruling, as a result, ushered in an era of powerful, independent agencies. These agencies regulate labor relations and employment discrimination. The Justice Department, nevertheless, argues Trump can fire board members for any reason. They say he needs this power to implement his agenda.
The court is hearing arguments unusually early. This is before the case works through lower courts. Slaughter’s attorneys argue against this. They say decisions will become political, not based on expertise. Ultimately, they argued, the decision should come from Congress. The entire legal system will watch this Kagan warns on Supreme Court ruling.
Attribution: Source: Newsweek (Original story by Dan Gooding, with reporting by the Associated Press)
