President Donald Trump shook the status quo on March 18, when he decided to remove two Democrats serving at the Federal Trade Commission.
Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, respectively, were appointed to serve until 2029 and 2026.
Trump's decision had been blocked in the lower courts, but the U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled that the firings can remain in place, for now.
Commissions such as this one are supposed to be independent bodies, even though the members are appointed by sitting presidents.
Generally speaking, a president would need just cause to terminate someone in one of these positions, but Trump wanted the individuals at issue gone from their roles because they were pushing back against his agenda.
After the terminations were announced, Slaughter and Bedoya announced that they would be suing the administration to be reinstated.
At that point, the only commissioners remaining on the board were Republicans, which would make getting Trump’s agenda through much easier.
The story of this administration has revolved around bureaucrats and jobs being fired or ended, rehired or started, then refired or ended again.
This has been a merry-go-round of sorts, depending upon the ideology of the judges who are overseeing the cases once litigation begins.
In this instance, when the firings went before the appellate court, judges ruled that Trump’s actions were illegal, albeit it a split ruling between a lone Trump-appointed jurist and two Obama appointees.
The majority opinion stated, “The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent.”
Slaughter was reinstated, then immediately began posting her dissenting takes on Trump's agenda, but that has just come to an end, at least for now.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s termination will be permitted to stay in place while the panel considers whether to hear the merits of the case.
I am sure most outlets are reporting this as a huge win for Trump, and while it is something of a victory, it is only a temporary one, as Chief Justice John Roberts made it clear this ruling is only in place until the Court decides whether to take on the case or not.
My gut tells me the Court will hear the matter, as Roberts is not usually one to make a ruling like this unless he feels the case will be accepted and the ruling would fall in favor of the termination. If the Court does eventually rule that the firing was legal, it will completely change the scope of presidential powers and likely lead to regular firings on these “independent” commissions, which will no longer be independent, but rather serve as a rubber stamp for whichever party is in power at the time.
