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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL), in partnership with Mitchell Law PLLC, has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. Slaughter, urging the Court to reaffirm that the President alone holds constitutional authority to remove executive officials.
For nearly ninety years, the Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (Humphrey’s Executor) has stripped presidents of control over so-called “independent” agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)—allowing unelected bureaucrats to wield executive power without accountability to the American people. The Constitution is clear: all executive power is vested in the President, and Congress has no authority to administer or execute the laws it enacts.
Humphrey’s Executor has stood as one of the most damaging precedents in American history. The decision allowed Congress to shield the FTC from presidential oversight by claiming it has “quasi-legislative” and “quasi-judicial” powers, whatever that means. The Constitution permits no such thing. The Framers vested all executive power in one branch—the Executive, and one person within that branch, the President—so that the law could be faithfully carried out and responsibility could be clearly fixed.
AFL’s brief explains that this case is not about expanding presidential power, but restoring constitutional order. The Supreme Court has not hesitated to correct its own constitutional errors—whether in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Janus v. AFSCME, or Seila Law LLC v. CFPB—and it should do so again here. Overruling Humphrey’s Executor would reaffirm the separation of powers, end Congress’s unconstitutional interference in executive functions, and return accountability to the American people.
“The Federal Trade Commission undoubtedly exercises executive power. The President necessarily must be able to remove any official who does so, and it is time for the Supreme Court to finally overturn Humphrey’s Executor for good,” said Gene Hamilton, President of America First Legal.
America First Legal will continue to fight to restore the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the principles of accountability that define our republic.
Read the full brief here.
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