The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday concerning the legality of Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission member in a major test of presidential power, with a Justice Department lawyer asking the justices to overrule a 90-year-old legal precedent.

The Justice Department has appealed a lower court’s decision that the Republican president exceeded his authority when he moved to dismiss Democratic FTC member Rebecca Slaughter in March before her term was set to expire.

The arguments were ongoing.

The case gives the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, an opportunity to overturn a New Deal-era Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has shielded the heads of independent agencies from removal since 1935.

‘Indefensible

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