President Donald Trump has received approval from the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).<\/p>\n
The Trump administration requested an emergency injunction from the Supreme Court last week to halt the lower court\u2019s decisions and expedite Slaughter\u2019s removal. The government has also asked the court to hear the entire case to settle the constitutional issue of whether a president can fire the heads of independent agencies.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department said in its filing that the FTC\u2019s powers had grown a lot since 1935, and that the president can now fire its commissioners, giving them a lot of executive power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the president has determined should not exercise any executive power, let alone significant rulemaking and enforcement powers,\u201d US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
In March, Trump removed Slaughter and another Democratic FTC commissioner. A federal district court mandated her reinstatement in July. On Tuesday, an appeals court said Trump couldn\u2019t fire Slaughter right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,\u201d the court order read, citing the 1935 case, Humphrey\u2019s Executor v. US.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s highest court has been busy lately.<\/p>\n
Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh issued warnings this summer to lower court judges, cautioning them against defying precedents set by the high court in a series of cases involving President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cLower court judges may sometimes disagree with this court\u2019s decisions, but they are never free to defy them,\u201d Gorsuch\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in an opinion last week.<\/p>\n