SCOTUS Greenlights Further Abuses of Presidential Power in Trump v. Slaughter

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter — a critical test for the limits of executive power — to let former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter’s firing stand and make it easier for the president to fire the heads of other independent federal agencies, Issue One Vice President of Advocacy Alix Fraser offered the following statement:

“Today, the Supreme Court greenlit further abuses of presidential power and stripped independent commissions of their independence. The ruling opens the floodgates for more governing decisions based on the president’s whims and self-interest. This ruling not only subverts the Constitution’s clear guardrails against executive overreach, it also breaks from the Court’s historical precedent to uphold the FTC removal provision.

“This decision contributes to a decades long trend of Democratic and Republican presidents consolidating the powers that the Constitution grants to Congress. The Constitution emphasizes separation of powers to ensure that no one branch of government is beyond reproach or accountability. The Court’s ruling today undermines that balance instead of reasserting it, concentrating even more power in the president’s hands.

“However, neither the Supreme Court nor the president need to have the final say here. Congress must step in, exert its constitutional authority over the FTC, check abuses of presidential power, and reassert the full powers that the Constitution grants it.”

Background

In November 2025, a bipartisan group of six former members of Congress joined Issue One in filing an amicus brief that called on the Court to uphold our constitutional system of checks and balances — even if it ruled that the firing of Slaughter could stand. The six signatories were Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-WI), Rep. Peter Smith (R-VT), Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (D-PA), Rep. Bill Sarpalius (D-TX), and Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA).

The amicus brief was part of Issue One’s Check the Exec campaign to stop executive branch overreach. In September 2025 as part of this campaign, Issue One partnered with YouGov to release polling about constitutional checks and balances and found that nearly 1 in 3 voters (32%) ranked the president having too much power as their number one issue, just below inflation (46%) and roughly tied with jobs (34%) and immigration (34%). The poll, which found strong bipartisan support for our system of checks and balances, revealed that an overall majority of voters (59%) — including nearly 8 in 10 independents (79%) — believe that President Trump is going too far outside the bounds of our system of checks and balances to advance his political agenda. The poll also found a broad, bipartisan preference for leaders who respect our system of checks and balances, with more than 3 in 4 voters (78%) supporting holding the executive branch accountable through congressional oversight.

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Issue One is the leading crosspartisan political reform group in Washington, D.C. We unite Republicans, Democrats, and independents in the movement to fix our broken political system and build an inclusive democracy that works for everyone.