Court appears to be split down partisan lines in favor of historic expansion of executive power – key US politics stories from 8 December 2025
The US supreme court on Monday appeared poised to back the Trump administration’s argument that the president should be able to fire independent board members that for almost a century have been protected from presidential interference.
The court heard arguments concerning the legality of Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member and appeared to be split down partisan lines in favor of a historic expansion of executive power, with the conservatives – including the sometimes swing vote of Justice Amy Coney Barrett – seeming to side with the administration.
The justice department has appealed a lower court’s decision that the Republican president exceeded his authority when he moved to dismiss Rebecca Slaughter, the Democratic FTC member, in March before her term was set to expire.
John Yoo, who served as a justice department lawyer under George W Bush, told Reuters the case presents “one of the most important questions over the last century on the workings of the federal government”. He added: “The future of the independence of the administrative state is at issue.”
