Justice Department asks Supreme Court to allow Trump to fire FTC commissioner

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump to fire a Federal Trade Commissioner without cause in another full-frontal attack on the concept of independent federal agencies. The request is a direct challenge to a 1935 Supreme Court precedent that upheld limits on the president's ability to fire FTC commissioners without cause, a restriction Congress imposed to protect the agency from political pressure.