Supreme Court Finally Reconsiders Humphrey’s Executor
22nd September 2025
The Supreme Court Monday announced it would take up a case that gets to the heart of why the deep state exists—it will revisit a precedent that defended the bureaucracy against the executive power vested in the president.
In Donald Trump v. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Supreme Court blocked a lower court order forcing the president to re-hire a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission after he had fired her in March.
On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that it wasn’t just allowing Trump to fire Slaughter until the case is resolved in court, but also that it would fully consider the case.
The court’s majority directed both parties to argue two central questions: “Whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935), should be overruled”; and “Whether a federal court may prevent a person’s removal from public office, either through relief at equity or at law.”