Supreme Court lets president fire SEC, CFTC commissioners

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 that presidents may remove commissioners of most independent federal agencies at will, overturning a nearly century-old protection that limited removals except for cause.

In Trump v. Slaughter, the court’s conservative majority rejected the New Deal–era standard that required extreme neglect or malfeasance to remove an agency commissioner. The opinion named Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, as the subject of the case and said the president may terminate her. The decision excludes Federal Reserve governors, who remain protected under separate law.

The ruling affects agencies that regulate financial markets, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The court noted that the president may now remove commissioners at those agencies without the prior statutory barrier of multi-year tenure.

The lawsuit has a direct connection to the cryptocurrency industry. Slaughter’s husband is vice president of policy at a venture firm, and the couple funded the legal challenge that reached the Supreme Court.

Agency composition and appointments are now likely to change under the new rule. The SEC currently lists three Republican commissioners and no Democrats; the CFTC is led by a single Republican chairman. The president has not named Democratic nominees to those commissions. Under the decision, a president can replace commissioners more readily and also remove them after appointment.

Lawmakers are considering how the ruling interacts with pending cryptocurrency legislation. The Clarity Act, a bipartisan bill that would define regulatory authority over many crypto activities and assign roles to the SEC and CFTC, has advanced from the Senate Banking Committee but still needs a Senate floor vote. Some Senate Democrats made support contingent on commitments to bipartisan oversight of the agencies and on ethics restrictions tied to the president’s crypto interests. Republican leadership has indicated plans to force a floor vote next month. Backers of the bill say it must pass by early August to retain a viable path to enactment before the November midterm elections.

President Trump reacted to the decision on social media, writing that the ruling represents “the greatest increase in presidential power in the last 100 years” and calling it “historic” and “monumental.” The court issued its opinion Monday, changing longstanding removal protections for most independent federal agency commissioners.