The US Supreme Court said it will hear arguments Dec. 8 in a case centered on whether President Donald Trump has the power to fire Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
The justices are reviewing the dispute on an expedited schedule after allowing Slaughter’s firing to remain in place during her appeal. The underlying case represents a pivotal test of Trump’s power to fire government officials at will.
The Supreme Court in 1935 established that a president couldn’t fire FTC commissioners without cause such as neglect of duty or malfeasance in office in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
But the court in September said it would consider whether that precedent should be overruled, as well as whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office. The Trump administratio n in February saidthat it wanted to topple the 90-year-precedent, which legal scholars say is foundational for the modern administrative state.
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