Supreme Court Reshapes Administrative State by Overruling Humphrey's Executor
In a monumental victory for proponents of the "unitary executive" theory, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Trump v. Slaughter (June 29, 2026) to overrule its 91-year-old precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935). The decision grants the President sweeping new authority to fire commissioners and heads of multi-member independent federal agencies at will1.2
The case originated from President Trump's immediate firing of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter last year. While lower courts ordered Slaughter's reinstatement, pointing to Humphrey's Executor as controlling precedent, the Supreme Court reversed those rulings.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that statutory "for-cause" removal protections for independent agency commissioners violate the constitutional separation of powers:
"the President must have the assistance of officers he can trust.3 Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work. Subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people."
Chief Justice Roberts concluded that because the FTC exercises executive power—such as enforcing dozens of statutes and filing civil suits in federal court—its commissioners are subordinates of the President and must be removable at will.
In a powerful dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the decision fundamentally alters the structure of the federal government, stripping independence from dozens of agencies that regulate broad sectors of American life:
"Today, the Court discards [the democratic regime] in favor of one that distorts the structure of Government to fit the majority’s theory of unitary, total executive control. The result is a President who emerges with far greater power than ever before."
Sotomayor noted that agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Merit Systems Protection Board are now vulnerable to direct presidential control, consolidating unprecedented administrative power in the executive branch.
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An instance of The independent regulatory agency is dead. — By overruling long-standing precedent, the high court stripped independent commissions of the statutory protections that kept them insulated from presidential command. ↩︎
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An instance of Excepted service schedules replace career civil service protections with at-will political obedience. — Overruling Humphrey’s Executor strips independent agency leaders of historical protections to ensure at-will political obedience to the president. ↩︎
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An instance of Centralizing executive control over the military and civil service triggers automatic institutional backlash. — The Supreme Court's ruling to allow at-will firing of independent agency heads sparked a fierce dissent warning of dangerous, total executive consolidation. ↩︎