Of course we all expected it. The Supreme Court today signaled it’s ready to side with Trump and allow him to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause a move that would upend the long-standing concept of independent federal agencies. Allowing a president to remove FTC commissioners at will would strike at the core of how these agencies are meant to function. They were created to enforce laws fairly and consistently, regardless of who occupies the White House. If commissioners can be dismissed without cause, they lose insulation from political pressure, and their decisions could shift based on a president’s personal or political interests rather than evidence or law.
This completely ignores why independent agencies were created in the first place. As the U.S. economy exploded in complexity in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Congress realized traditional executive departments couldn’t keep up with national industries like railroads, banking, and telecommunications. Companies were abusing consumers, fixing prices, and exerting enormous political influence, and presidents were pressuring regulators or firing them when rulings didn’t benefit their allies. To stop this, Congress built agencies with fixed terms, bipartisan membership requirements, and removal protections so experts (not political loyalists) could make decisions based on evidence, law, and long-term stability rather than partisan demands. That structure was strengthened during the Progressive Era and the New Deal, when crises like unsafe food, monopolistic behavior, and the Great Depression showed the need for professional, stable regulators who would apply the law consistently across administrations.
If the Supreme Court wipes out those protections, it opens the door to retaliation firings where commissioners could be removed simply for investigating companies tied to the president, blocking politically favored mergers, or enforcing rules an administration dislikes. Markets would become less stable as antitrust enforcement, consumer protection, and corporate oversight swing unpredictably with presidential moods or election cycles. And it wouldn’t stop with the FTC: the same precedent could undermine the independence of the SEC, Federal Reserve, NLRB, FCC, FDA, and other key bodies, concentrating power in the executive branch and weakening essential checks and balances. Ultimately, it risks replacing nonpartisan experts with political loyalists, eroding the protections that consumers, workers, and small businesses rely on exactly the kind of political interference independent agencies were created to prevent. We are returning to the spoils system more and more every day.
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