The Supreme Court just swung a massive wrecking ball at the federal government on President Donald Trump's behalf, according to a new analysis.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that the president has the power to fire members of formerly independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. Trump celebrated the ruling as a necessary expansion of presidential power, while some court watchers cautioned that it could lead to a full-scale overhaul of the federal government at the behest of one man.
Alexis Romero, who writes about the Supreme Court for Slate, argued in a new article that the Slaughter ruling represents a "wrecking ball" that has been swung at the federal government.
"This ruling undermines hundreds of statutes that created agencies that were once insulated from presidential control with political party requirements and removal restrictions," Romero wrote. "Nearly all federal agencies that everyday Americans rely on are now fully under President Donald Trump’s thumb. Worse, there are hidden dangers beyond the president firing high-ranking commissioners that the court failed to even acknowledge, ones that voters will need to prompt Congress to step in and correct before the presidency becomes too powerful to tame."
Romero also warned that few government agencies seem to have been spared by the Supreme Court's ruling. For instance, agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could also be impacted.
"The Supreme Court’s reckless logic leaves no room for carve-outs outside of Wall Street: 'Subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him.' Full stop," Romero wrote. "Until there’s a new president, or a Congress with some spine, Americans will be left to suffer from the untold amounts of fraud and dysfunction that Trump is about to inflict on the executive branch and the country."