Out of Commission

The Supreme Court is letting President Trump continue to use his Apprentice catchphrase in the Oval Office. 

Monday, SCOTUS voted along ideological lines (6-3) to allow Trump to fire Biden-appointed Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The decision temporarily halts a July appellate ruling that Slaughter’s firing was “unlawful” due to a 90-year-old precedent that prevents presidents from firing heads of independent agencies (think: FTC, SEC) without cause. 

The Supremes agreed to revisit the 1935 decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, later this term. If Humphrey’s is overturned, department heads may shift with every new presidential administration. 

Dissenting liberal justices argued the congressionally established independent agencies should be shielded from presidential influence, and warned that expanding the president’s hiring and firing authority may “extinguish” their “bipartisanship and independence” and “reshape the Nation’s separation of powers.”

ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Even the longest precedent in SCOTUS history is just a speck on the timeline of eternity. SCOTUS decisions and agency leadership changes may feel like big news, but the things that will have eternal impact are your “small” acts of love and obedience before God.

“Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.”
Galatians 6:9-10 (CSB) (read full passage)