Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire FTC Commissioner Slaughter

The Supreme Court allowed President Trump to fire a leader of the Federal Trade Commission, setting up a court battle over a 90-year-old limit on executive power over independent agencies. In an emergency order, a divided court announced that it would allow President Trump, for now, to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and that it would hear argument in the case in December. The court said it would consider in December the broader question of whether to overturn the precedent that has prevented presidents from removing independent regulators without cause and solely over policy disagreements. Justice Elena Kagan said her conservative colleagues had essentially allowed the president to take charge of agencies Congress intended to protect from partisanship.