After Supreme Court ruling, will Trump order more firings at independent federal agencies?

WASHINGTON —

The U.S. Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump free rein to fire members of independent federal agencies in a 6-3 ruling on Monday, so should we expect additional firings from him moving forward?

“I don’t think so,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It gives a president the right to do what the president should have the right to do.”

The court’s majority overturned a precedent that had been in place for nearly a century, preventing past presidents from removing members of independent agencies at will. On social media, Trump hailed the decision as “historic” and “one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers.”

The case stemmed from Trump’s removal of former Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. She was fired last year without cause and told that her continued service was out of step with the Trump administration’s priorities.

Victoria Nourse, a law professor at Georgetown University, said the Supreme Court’s decision could have wide-reaching ripple effects across the federal government.

“Over two dozen agencies are affected by this ruling, and they are not minor agencies. They cover everything from the financial markets, the commodities markets, and nuclear power,” Nourse said.

Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Anna Gomez, one of the few Democrats who have held onto their seats after a wave of firings under Trump, warned that the ruling is at odds with how Congress intended independent agencies to function.

“When commissioners can be removed for their policy views rather than for cause, the inevitable result is an agency that pulls its punches and defers to political winds rather than the record before it,” Gomez said.

In a separate 5-4 ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court blocked the president’s attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, until litigation is resolved in the lower courts. Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, which she denies.

“Without such constraints in place, any perceived or alleged misstep (past or present) could provide a ready pretext for a Governor’s removal — a fact that he would surely know, and that would surely weigh on him as he decided what to say and how to vote. Nothing could be more corrosive of the independence that Congress sought to preserve,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.

The president has pressured the Fed to slash interest rates, and replacing Cook with another appointee would’ve given him a majority on the panel that sets borrowing costs.

On social media, Trump vowed to “take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!”