The Supreme Court’s decision to allow President Trump to fire independent government regulators has implications not just for the Federal Trade Commission, the agency at the heart of the case, but for more than two dozen independent agencies across the federal government.
Already, there are at least 13 agencies, including the F.T.C., where Mr. Trump has fired Senate-confirmed officials, pressured others to resign or dismissed the agency’s board entirely, despite federal laws that had limited his authority to do so.
The Trump administration moves have effectively ended Democratic majorities at almost all of those agencies.
Many of Mr. Trump’s firings or board dismissals were temporarily allowed by the Supreme Court, but now appear likely to stand. At least four independent bodies were left without a quorum earlier in Mr. Trump’s term before he appointed his own picks.
The court’s decision could now affect about a dozen other independent agencies where Mr. Trump has not fired officials. Moving forward, it appears presidents will be able to more easily fire independent regulators, which could mean more presidential control over the regulation of a host of industries. The one exception is the Federal Reserve, in which the Supreme Court carved out an exception for Lisa D. Cook, a member of the board of governors, preventing Mr. Trump from immediately removing her from the powerful central bank.
Congress created many of these agencies to fulfill a government watchdog role. The Merit Systems Protection Board, which offers protections for government workers, has been asked to review major government actions such as the Trump administration’s mass layoff of federal workers last year.
Another affected board, the National Transportation Safety Board, has been investigating a spate of deadly plane crashes in the United States.
And the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was essentially disbanded last year, has had its building co-opted into an event space with the president’s name pasted on its facade as Mr. Trump has tried to create his own institution for resolving global conflicts.
