SCOTUS Allows Trump To Remove Biden Appointed FTC Member For Now

The Left is having a meltdown — and it’s delicious.

On Monday, the Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump yet another win, quietly but firmly smacking down a lower court ruling that tried to force him to keep a Democrat in power at the Federal Trade Commission. Yes, seriously. A sitting president is apparently not allowed to remove someone from a key regulatory post — because Congress wrote some “independence” language into a dusty law from the 1930s.

Enter Rebecca Slaughter, the liberal FTC commissioner Trump has been trying to remove. She’s been clinging to her seat like it’s a lifeboat on the Titanic, thanks to a federal judge and a D.C. appeals court that suddenly forgot the Constitution exists.

But now, the Supreme Court has stepped in. And it’s getting interesting.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued what’s known as an administrative stay — legal speak for “pause button” — that blocks a lower court order requiring Trump to reinstate Slaughter, at least for now. That means she’s on the sidelines while the justices review whether Trump, the elected President of the United States, actually has the power to fire someone he doesn’t trust to carry out his agenda.

You’d think that would be a no-brainer.

But nope — thanks to an obscure 1935 case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the courts have been hiding behind a nearly 100-year-old precedent that says the president can’t remove FTC commissioners just for policy disagreements. Apparently, in today’s Washington, unelected bureaucrats have more job security than most Americans.

The kicker? That ruling was about FDR — yes, that FDR — trying to get rid of a commissioner who didn’t share his vision. Sound familiar?

Trump’s team made the obvious argument: that the modern-day FTC has evolved into a far more powerful, policy-making beast than it was back when people were listening to news on the radio and eating Spam for dinner. They argued that FTC commissioners do wield executive power now, and therefore, should be accountable to the executive.