Trump, President of United States v. Slaughter: Oral Argument

Case Summary:Trump, President of the United States v. Slaughter arises from President Donald Trump’s March 2025 decision to fire Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter before the end of her fixed term, even though the FTC Act provides that commissioners may be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Trump notified Slaughter by email that keeping her on the Commission would be inconsistent with his Administration’s priorities and did not claim any statutory “for cause” ground, prompting Slaughter to sue in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the theory that her removal violated both the FTC Act and the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, after which the district court ordered her reinstatement and the government sought emergency stays in the D.C. Circuit and then the Supreme Court. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the President may remove a sitting Federal Trade Commission commissioner at will based solely on policy disagreement or whether the FTC Act’s “for cause” removal protection, as interpreted in Humphrey’s Executor, constitutionally limits the President to removing commissioners only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.