Humphrey's Executor v. United States
Legal Issues
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Overview
In 1935, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot fire members of independent regulatory agencies like the FTC just because he disagrees with them. Those agencies were designed to operate with insulation from the White House. That precedent has been the legal wall standing between the Trump administration and its ability to remove commissioners from the FTC, the Federal Reserve Board, and similar bodies, and by 2025 the Supreme Court was actively being asked whether to overrule it. Bryan covers it as the fulcrum of the DOGE-era independence cases. It's the case Trump needs gone.
The Conclusion
**Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935) held that presidents cannot summarily remove independent agency commissioners, and for decades that ruling constrained presidential removal power over agencies like the FTC.** That framework no longer controls: on June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court overruled Humphrey's Executor in Trump v. Slaughter, 609 U.S. ___ (2026) (6-3, Roberts, C.J.), holding that FTC commissioners are removable at will by the President. Humphrey's Executor survives only for the narrow proposition that an agency exercising no executive power need not fall within the President's removal authority.
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