Published by K&L Gates; Key contacts: Varu Chilakamarri, J. Timothy Hobbs, Craig E. Leen, Timothy J. Furdyna, and Neeki Memarzadeh
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Since returning to office in January 2025, President Trump has made broad assertions of executive authority, including the power to fire independent agency heads at will. For almost a century, these officials have been protected by law from such “without cause” removals, enjoying insulation from direct presidential control. That status quo—rooted in the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States—is on the verge of transformation.
This term, the Supreme Court will reconsider Humphrey’s Executor and decide whether Congress may insulate independent agency heads from the president’s control. The practical implications are significant, including increased presidential oversight of regulatory decisions made across independent agencies such as the Federal Reserve System, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and many others. Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in the pending cases, businesses may have to reassess how they interact with these agencies in the regulatory process.
Humphrey’s Executor and Removal Authority
Although the president has clear constitutional authority to remove executive agency heads (such as the Secretary of State), Congress has long sought to restrict the removal power as it relates to leaders of “independent” boards and commissions—those agencies that Congress has structured to be more insulated from presidential control.
To that end, Congress has often imposed “for cause” restrictions on the president’s ability to remove the heads of these independent agencies. The Supreme Court validated this approach in Humphrey’s Executor, where it upheld a law that prevented the president from removing FTC members except in cases of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” That decision—which was seen as a check on President Roosevelt—established that Congress could limit the president’s removal authority for independent agencies, which function as quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial bodies.