The Big Story

Supreme Court to weigh protections for agencies

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to formally consider overruling its 90-year-old precedent that enables Congress to provide certain agencies with a degree of independence from the White House, a major test of President Trump’s expansive assertion of presidential power.

© Greg Nash

The justices are set to review Trump’s contention that he can fire independent agency leaders at will, an argument that casts their for-cause removal protections as infringing on the separation of powers.

Oral arguments are set for December, with a decision expected by next summer.

Until then, the court’s order temporarily greenlights Trump’s firing of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member Rebecca Slaughter over the dissents of the court’s three l

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