Analysis
Key Facts
—What this is about. On June 29 the US Supreme Court handed the president sweeping new power to fire the heads of independent federal regulators at will — one of the biggest shifts in how Washington is governed in decades.
—The precedent overturned. The 6–3 ruling swept away a 91-year-old precedent, from 1935, that had let Congress protect such officials from removal except for cause.
—Who is now exposed. Agencies once thought independent — the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board — can now have their leaders fired at will.
