US Supreme Court takes up case on whether to expand Trump's powers

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up the case on whether President Donald Trump can fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), despite a law limiting his ability to do so.

The United States' highest court said it will argue "whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers" and if so, whether the 1935 law preventing the president from firing an FTC member should be reversed.

The court will also determine if the president's power can carry across to other federal agencies with similar restrictions by weighing "whether a federal court may prevent a person's removal from public office, either through relief at equity or law."

While the nation's top court is expected to hear the case in December, the Supreme Court said a lower court ruling in favor of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter – the FTC commissioner in question – will remain on hold, meaning she will not stay in office while the case is litigated.

With a conservative majority of 6-3, Chief Justice John Roberts on Sept. 8 issued a temporary stay that allowed Trump to remove Slaughter from office.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the decision to allow Slaughter's firing while litigation continues.

"Under existing law, what Congress said goes – as this Court unanimously decided nearly a century ago," liberal Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. "In Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), we rejected a claim of presidential prerogative identical to the one made in this case."

"So the President cannot, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC Commissioner without any reason. To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humprey's," Kagan continued, arguing that current law “prevents the majority from giving the President the unlimited removal power Congress denied him."

- Dramatic reshaping of government

In March, Trump fired both Democratic commissioners on the five-member Federal Trade Commission – Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Both challenged the decision, but Bedoya later dropped out of the case.

In July, a federal judge ruled in favor of Slaughter, citing the 1935 Supreme Court precedent, with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reaching a similar conclusion.

The Supreme Court is set to take up the case before the end of the year.

Legal experts said Trump has worked to dramatically reshape the federal government using an aggressive form of executive power.

In addition to the FTC firings, Trump has also sought to remove members of other independent federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has already allowed.

In another test of presidential authority, Trump is also trying to assert control over the Federal Reserve, the central bank which has traditionally acted as an independent government body.

"Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars," wrote Kagan. "Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer authority from Congress to the President, and thus reshape the Nation's separation of powers."