WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will revisit a nearly century-old ruling protecting the heads of independent agencies that President Donald Trump has repeatedly challenged as he’s sought greater control over the government.
The court on Sept. 22 took the rare step of agreeing to take up the issue before the lower courts have finished weighing in. The justices will hear arguments in December.
The court also said Trump could remove for now Rebecca Slaughter, the sole Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission. That decision was made over the objections of the court's three liberal justices.
The high court has been chipping away at its 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld the constitutionality of preventing members of the Federal Trade Commission from being fired without cause.
But the court has not yet overturned that precedent.
