The U.S. Supreme Court next week will consider the legality of President Donald Trump’s removal of a Federal Trade Commission member, a case that tests the scope of presidential authority over independent agencies established by Congress and could affect a 90-year-old legal precedent.
The court hears arguments on Monday in the Justice Department’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that Trump exceeded his authority when he moved to dismiss Democrat FTC member Rebecca Slaughter in March before her term was set to expire.
The case gives the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, an opportunity to overturn a New Deal-era Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has shielded the heads of independent agencies from removal since 1935.
