Supreme Court poised to expand Trump's power over independent agencies

The Supreme Court on Monday appeared poised to allow President Donald Trump to fire a leader of the Federal Trade Commission, a ruling that could limit or overturn a 90-year-old precedent that curbs executive power to dismiss the heads of agencies Congress set up to be independent.


A ruling in favor of Trump’s position has been widely expected by legal experts because the justices have been chipping away for years at the precedent, known as Humphrey’s Executor. Many of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have expressed support for an idea known as unitary executive theory, which holds that the Constitution gives the president broad authority to fire officials and that Congress cannot limit it.

During arguments Monday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. referred to Humphrey’s Executor as a “dried husk.” The contemporary FTC bears little resemblance to the one that existed at the time of the high court’s 1935 ruling that insulated its commissioners from removal by the president without cause, because it now exercises significant executive powers, he said.

Conservative Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said independent agencies lack accountability.

https://wapo.st/4rFjrPP

The extreme court wants to bring back the spoils system when unqualified cronies got these jobs.