Trump v. Slaughter · ¶141

Whatever merit these objections once might have held, they now speak to a bygone era. As my dissenting colleagues see it, removal protections were “centrally important,” or perhaps even “‘essential,’” to Congress when it decided to create so many independent agencies and delegate so much legislative and judicial power to them. Post, at 36 (quoting Humphrey’s, 295 U. S., at 625). On their account, Congress gave all that power to “specialists” in independent agencies “precisely because [they were] not fully controlled by the White House.” Trump v. Wilcox, 605 U. S. ＿＿＿, ＿＿＿ (2025) (KAGAN, J., dissenting from grant of application for stay) (slip op., at 6). But now removal protections are a thing of the past, and the President enjoys direct control over independent and executive agencies alike. So even if entrusting legislative and judicial powers to insulated, independent agencies once…

slip opinion, revised 7/07/26
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