Supreme Court

Trump, Scalia, and the Unitary Executive

How a four-decade-old dissent may now help the president fire independent federal agency heads at will

Damon Root | 6.16.2026 7:00 AM

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(Illustration: Adani Samat. Photo: Bonnie Cash - via CNP/Polaris/Newscom/Marielam1)

Sometime in the next two or three weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide a case about the president's authority to fire independent federal agency heads "at will," rather than "for cause," as federal law currently requires. If President Donald Trump wins the case, as many legal observers think he probably will, a 1988 dissenting opinion by a famous conservative justice is likely to play a key supporting role.

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The pending case is Trump v. Slaughter. It centers on Trump's purported firing of Rebecca Slaughter from her position as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). According to the Federal Trade Commission Act, FTC commissioners may only "be removed by the President for inefficiency,........

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