The US Supreme Court says that US President Donald Trump can indeed fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The ruling is in direct contrast to a 1935 ruling that upheld restrictions on the president’s ability to remove FTC commissioners without cause. The court, via an order issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, temporarily blocked a judge’s ruling that reinstated FTC member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter while her case continues.

Trump fired both Democratic commissioners on the five-person FTC in March, Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Both challenged the decision, although the latter later dropped out of the case. Under the 1914 law that set up the FTC, members can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” However, Trump’s firing of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter would directly contrast that law.

Lawyers for the Trump administration argue that the removal restrictions unlawfully impose limits on the president’s power to control the executive branch as defined by Article 2 of the Constitution. Trump has already fired several top members of the US Government this year who opposed his administration or didn’t meet his values, although many of them violated existing laws prohibiting the firings without direct cause.

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Rebecca Kelly Slaughter is currently under an administrative stay, a short-term order that gives the Supreme Court more time to review Trump’s emergency request to fire her. As a result, Slaughter is out of work until the high court resolves the emergency case. It was Trump himself who first placed Slaughter on the board in 2018. Former President Joe Biden nominated her for a second term, and the Senate confirmed her without opposition last year.