Supreme Court allows Trump to fire leaders of independent federal agencies

The Supreme Court temporarily allowed Donald Trump to fire federal agency leaders. In an emergency ruling that did not carry a signature, the justices ruled in favor of the White House on the grounds that Trump can remove those officials because "the Constitution vests the executive power in the President."

The ruling also clarified that while this authority is lawful, it is also subject to "limited exceptions recognized by our precedents." "Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, see Art. II, §1, cl. 1, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents," the conservative justices of the highest court added.

Elena Kagan, who wrote a dissenting opinion along with Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, latched on to a 1935 precedent to explain her arguments.

"Today’s order, however, favors the President over our precedent; and it does so unrestrained by the rules of briefing and argument—and the passage of time— needed to discipline our decision-making. I would deny the President’s application. I would do so based on the will of Congress, this Court’s seminal decision approving independent agencies’ for-cause protections, and the ensuing 90 years of this Nation’s history," she wrote.

The case originated with two Trump firings. Specifically, the president showed Cathy A. Harris, a Merit Systems Protection Board member, and Gwynne A. Wilcox, a National Labor Relations Board member, the door. President Joe Biden had appointed both officials.

Wilcox's lawyers compared their dismissal to a hypothetical firing of Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve: "At a time when the president is publicly pressing the Fed chairman on monetary policy."

"Experts warn that any signal from this court that the Fed's independence is in jeopardy will further disrupt market volatility," they added.

While the president flirted with firing Powell in the past, he recently confirmed that the Fed chairman will remain in his position.