# ANALYSIS: A 91-year-old wall just fell, and Trump has fired 50 > On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled six to three in Trump v. Slaughter, expanding presidential power to remove members of independent federal agencies. The ruling overturns a 91-year-old precedent, Humphrey's Executor, decided in 1935, according to The Guardian. A wall built in 1935 to keep politics out of certain agencies came down in a single ruling, six votes to three. - Author: Maxime Marquette - Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co) - Section: Analysis - Published: 2026-07-30 - Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/a-91-year-old-wall-just-fell-and-trump-has-fired-50 ## Key takeaways - The 1935 Humphrey's Executor precedent barred removal of certain independent agency members without cause; the ruling removes that constraint, according to The Guardian. - Trump has fired more than 50 federal agency officials since January 2025, including Rebecca Slaughter (FTC), Cathy Harris (Merit Systems Protection Board) and Deirdre Hamilton (National Mediation Board). - Harris called her removal "a dagger planted in the heart of the civil service"; Trump called the ruling a "great victory." - Three justices dissented, but the article found no sources detailing their reasoning. - The article says the full majority opinion, the new legal standard, and the ruling's reach to the Federal Reserve remain unknown. ## Introduction On **June 29, 2026**, the **Supreme Court** ruled **six to three** in **Trump v. Slaughter**, expanding presidential power to remove members of independent federal agencies. **The ruling overturns a 91-year-old precedent**, **Humphrey's Executor**, decided in 1935, according to **The Guardian**. *A wall built in 1935 to keep politics out of certain agencies came down in a single ruling, six votes to three.* Since returning to the White House in **January 2025**, **Donald Trump** has fired **more than 50 federal agency officials**, according to The Guardian's July 14, 2026 reporting. Among them: **Rebecca Slaughter** of the **Federal Trade Commission**, the case's namesake; **Cathy Harris** of the **Merit Systems Protection Board**; and **Deirdre Hamilton** of the **National Mediation Board**. **Trump called the ruling a "great victory."** This **analysis** examines what the ruling actually changed, who has been **removed** as a result, what the dissent argued, and what remains genuinely unknown about its reach into other independent agencies. **The vote was six to three, not unanimous** — three justices dissented, and their specific reasoning is not detailed in the sources available for this analysis. ## What Humphrey's Executor actually protected ### A 1935 precedent built for a specific purpose The precedent overturned by **Trump v. Slaughter**, **Humphrey's Executor v. United States**, dates to **1935** and established that the president could not remove members of certain independent agencies without cause. **The rule existed specifically to insulate** multi-member regulatory bodies like the **Federal Trade Commission** from direct presidential control, allowing them to operate with a measure of **independence** from partisan political pressure. No source consulted for this analysis details the specific legal reasoning the 1935 Court used to reach that conclusion, beyond its general purpose of shielding independent agencies. **Ninety-one years is a long run for a legal rule** to remain the controlling precedent on presidential removal power. *A rule that survives nine decades of changing presidents earns the label of settled law, right up until it isn't.* ### Why the FTC specifically mattered to the original case Humphrey's Executor arose from a dispute over the **Federal Trade Commission** specifically, and it is fitting, if not deliberate, that **Trump v. Slaughter** also centers on an FTC commissioner. **Rebecca Slaughter**, the case's namesake, was removed from the FTC, placing her firing at the exact center of the same **regulatory body** the original 1935 ruling was designed to protect. No source consulted specifies whether the Supreme Court's 2026 majority directly addressed this historical parallel in its opinion. **The symmetry is notable regardless of whether the Court commented on it directly.** ## The vote itself: six to three ### A supermajority, not a bare majority The **Trump v. Slaughter** ruling passed by a **six-to-three** vote, a clear **supermajority** rather than a narrow one-vote margin. No source consulted for this analysis names the specific justices in the majority or the dissent, nor details the **majority opinion's** author. **This analysis does not attribute specific reasoning to unnamed justices** where the sources do not identify them. **A six-justice majority** on a question this consequential for the separation of powers suggests the ruling reflects more than a narrow **ideological split** confined to the Court's newest **appointees**. *Six votes is not a coin flip. It is a court speaking with more than a bare majority's worth of confidence.* ### What the three dissenting justices are documented to have argued Three **justices** dissented from the majority. **No source consulted for this analysis details their specific legal arguments**, beyond the fact of their dissent itself. This is a genuine **gap** in the available record, and this analysis states it directly rather than filling it with **inference** about what a typical dissent in this area might argue. **A documented dissent without documented reasoning** is still worth naming, because its existence confirms the ruling was not unanimous, and that a meaningful minority of the Court saw the removal power question differently. **Three votes against. Their argument remains undocumented here.** ## Rebecca Slaughter: the case's namesake ### An FTC commissioner removed, then litigating **Rebecca Slaughter** served as a commissioner on the **Federal Trade Commission** before her removal by the Trump administration. Her case became the vehicle through which the Supreme Court revisited **Humphrey's Executor**, ultimately ruling against the position she and her **legal team** advanced. **Her name now attaches permanently** to the precedent that replaces the 91-year-old rule that once would have protected her position. No source consulted details Slaughter's specific legal arguments before the Court, nor her public statement, if any, following the June 29, 2026 ruling. *A commissioner's name becomes a case name, and the case name outlives the commission seat that started it.* ### What her removal meant for the FTC's composition Slaughter's removal reduced the sitting membership of the **Federal Trade Commission**, an agency structured, under the now-overturned precedent, to include **commissioners** from more than one political party by design. No source consulted specifies who, if anyone, has since filled her seat, nor the FTC's current political **composition** following her departure. ## Cathy Harris and the Merit Systems Protection Board ### "A dagger planted in the heart of the civil service" **Cathy Harris**, formerly of the **Merit Systems Protection Board**, offered one of the most pointed public **reactions** to this broader pattern of removals, saying on **July 14, 2026**: **"a dagger planted in the heart of the civil service."** Her statement is her own characterization, attributed directly to her, not an independently verified assessment of the ruling's broader **consequences**. The **Merit Systems Protection Board** exists specifically to adjudicate disputes involving federal employee protections, meaning Harris's removal touches an agency whose entire purpose is safeguarding **civil servants** from arbitrary dismissal. *The person removed from the board built to protect federal workers from arbitrary firing is herself describing her own firing in exactly those terms.* ### What Harris's specific role means for this analysis Because the **Merit Systems Protection Board's** function is protecting federal employees from improper removal, Harris's own dismissal carries a specific irony worth naming precisely: the body meant to check **arbitrary firings** lost a member to what she describes as exactly that kind of firing. **This analysis presents her characterization as her own view**, not as an established **legal finding** about the board's own removal. ## Deirdre Hamilton and the National Mediation Board ### A third named removal, a third independent agency **Deirdre Hamilton**, formerly of the **National Mediation Board**, represents a third specifically named example, among the more than **50 total firings**, of an official removed from an independent federal agency since January 2025. The **National Mediation Board** handles labor disputes in the railroad and airline industries, a narrower mandate than the FTC's broad **consumer-protection** and antitrust authority. No source consulted details Hamilton's public reaction to her removal, nor the board's current **composition** following her departure. **Three named officials, three different agencies, one common thread**: all removed under an expanded presidential authority the Supreme Court had not yet confirmed at the time some of these removals may have occurred. ### Why the range of agencies matters to the analysis That these three named removals span the **FTC**, the **Merit Systems Protection Board**, and the **National Mediation Board** — three agencies with entirely distinct regulatory missions — suggests the pattern of removals was not confined to a single **policy area**, but applied across the broader category of **independent multi-member agencies** generally. **Breadth, not narrowness, characterizes this pattern** as documented. ## The more-than-50 figure, examined ### What "more than 50" does and does not tell us The Guardian's July 14, 2026 reporting states that Trump has fired **more than 50 federal agency officials** since January 2025. No source consulted for this analysis provides a complete itemized list beyond the three officials named specifically: Slaughter, Harris, and Hamilton. **The precise total, and a full roster of every affected agency**, is not available in the material reviewed here. This analysis treats **"more than 50"** as a reported floor rather than an exact count, consistent with how The Guardian's own language frames the **figure**. *A number this large, even stated only as a floor, describes a sweep rather than a series of isolated decisions.* ### A pace that outstrips any recent precedent No source consulted provides a directly comparable figure for removals of independent agency officials under any prior administration, making a precise **historical comparison** impossible with the material available. **What can be stated is the scale claimed**: more than 50 officials, across multiple agencies, within roughly **eighteen months** of a single administration's return to office. ## What the ruling changes going forward ### Removal without cause, now presidentially available Under **Humphrey's Executor**, the president needed a specific **justifying cause** to remove members of certain independent agencies before their terms expired. **Trump v. Slaughter** removes that constraint, according to The Guardian's characterization of the ruling, expanding the president's **authority** to remove such officials more freely. **The legal shield lowered.** The president's removal authority rose to match. No source consulted specifies the exact legal standard the Court substituted for the old "for cause" requirement, nor whether any residual **limits** on removal authority survive the ruling. *A precedent overturned rarely leaves a vacuum. It leaves a new rule, whose exact edges take years of subsequent litigation to define.* ### Which agencies remain untouched, and which do not No source consulted for this analysis provides a comprehensive list of every independent agency the ruling affects versus any that might remain outside its **reach**. **This analysis does not extend the ruling's scope** beyond what The Guardian's reporting documents: an expansion of removal power touching, at minimum, the **FTC**, the **Merit Systems Protection Board**, and the **National Mediation Board**, based on the removals already carried out. ## The Federal Reserve question, named but unresolved ### A long-term consequence not yet documented Long-term consequences for other independent agencies, including the **Federal Reserve**, are not yet documented in the sources consulted for this analysis — they remain **anticipated** rather than confirmed. **This is a genuinely open question**, not a settled one, and this analysis treats it accordingly rather than assuming an outcome the sources do not support. The Federal Reserve occupies a uniquely sensitive position among independent agencies, given its role in setting **monetary policy** insulated from short-term political pressure. *Naming the Fed as a possible next question is not the same as knowing the answer. The distance between those two things is where this analysis draws its line.* ### Why speculation here would be irresponsible No source consulted quotes any sitting justice, administration official, or Federal Reserve official addressing whether Trump v. Slaughter extends to the **Fed** specifically. **This analysis declines to predict an outcome** the legal and political record does not yet support, consistent with the broader discipline this publication applies to **unresolved legal questions**. ## Trump's public reaction ### "A great victory," in his own words **Donald Trump** characterized the June 29, 2026 ruling as a **"great victory,"** according to the sources consulted. This is his own attributed characterization of the outcome, presented as his stated view rather than as an independent assessment of the ruling's broader constitutional significance. **A president celebrating expanded removal power** is, on its own terms, an unremarkable reaction to a ruling that directly benefits his administration's authority. No source consulted provides additional context for Trump's statement beyond the phrase itself, such as the **setting** in which he made it or any elaboration on which specific removals he considers **vindicated** by the ruling. *Three words from a president tell you his verdict. They do not tell you the dissent's.* ### What "victory" means for the specific officials named For **Rebecca Slaughter**, **Cathy Harris**, and **Deirdre Hamilton**, the ruling Trump calls a victory is the same ruling that upheld their own removals from **federal service**. **A single ruling produces opposite verdicts** depending on which side of the removal one sits on — a victory for the **presidency's authority**, a loss for the specific officials whose positions the ruling failed to protect. ## The broader legal climate this ruling joins ### Two circuit courts pushing back the same window This expansion of executive removal authority arrives within the same broad period as separate legal setbacks for the administration elsewhere. On **July 30, 2026**, the **9th Circuit** and **7th Circuit** federal appeals courts each ruled against the administration's policy of **indefinite immigrant detention**, according to the **New York Times**. **One ruling expanded presidential power. Separate rulings, a month later, constrained it in a different policy area.** No source consulted connects these separate legal threads causally. *A president can win a fight over agency removals and lose a fight over detention policy in the same season. Courts do not grade an administration on a single curve.* ### A pattern of contested executive authority across multiple fronts Beyond the detention rulings, a **National Bureau of Economic Research** study, resurfaced by **Raw Story** on July 29, 2026, found no positive employment effect from **ICE raids** for U.S.-born workers, adding an **empirical challenge** to a separate enforcement policy. **None of these developments are causally linked** to Trump v. Slaughter specifically. They share only a broad period and a recurring theme: executive authority tested across multiple institutions simultaneously. ## The political backdrop surrounding the ruling's aftermath ### An approval collapse unfolding in parallel An analysis by CNN's **Harry Enten**, relayed by **Raw Story** on July 30, 2026, found Trump's net approval among voters under 50 collapsing from minus-3 in the fall of 2024 to **minus-41** in 2026. **No source consulted ties this specific polling shift to Trump v. Slaughter.** The ruling itself, decided June 29, 2026, predates the **polling analysis** by roughly a month. **A month is enough time for a Supreme Court ruling to fade from daily headlines**, but not necessarily enough time for its **institutional consequences** to fully register with voters focused more immediately on **prices and jobs**. *A ruling about agency structure rarely moves a poll the way a grocery receipt does.* ### An Attorney General confirmation stalling the same week as other setbacks On July 30, 2026, the confirmation of **Todd Blanche** as permanent Attorney General was delayed after Republican senators **John Cornyn** and **Thom Tillis** blocked it over a disputed **$1.8 billion fund**. This dispute is unrelated in substance to Trump v. Slaughter, but it documents an **administration** facing friction from its own governing majority in the same broad window as the ruling's continued fallout. ## What legal scholars would need to settle ### The precise boundary the ruling drew A complete legal accounting of **Trump v. Slaughter** would require the full text of the majority opinion, the specific **standard** it substitutes for Humphrey's Executor's "for cause" requirement, and the three dissenting justices' full reasoning. **None of these elements are available** in the sources consulted for this analysis, which relies primarily on The Guardian's July 14, 2026 **characterization** of the ruling and its consequences. *A ruling this significant deserves a fuller record than any single analysis can offer from secondary reporting alone.* This analysis states that limitation directly rather than presenting secondary characterization as if it were the full opinion. ### What would change this analysis's conclusions Access to the full majority opinion, the dissent's specific text, or a documented ruling extending the precedent explicitly to the **Federal Reserve** or another named agency would materially change what this analysis can state with **confidence**. **Absent that material**, this analysis limits its claims to the ruling's confirmed outcome, its confirmed vote count, and the specific, named **removals** documented in available reporting. ## Why the case's timing matters ### Eighteen months of removals, then a ruling that ratifies them Trump began removing officials from independent agencies well before the Supreme Court's June 29, 2026 ruling, meaning many of the more than 50 documented firings likely predate the Court's formal **blessing** of the underlying removal authority. **The ruling did not initiate the pattern of removals. It confirmed the legal authority** for a pattern that had already been underway since January 2025. No source consulted specifies how many of the 50-plus removals occurred before versus after the June 29, 2026 ruling specifically. **This distinction matters legally**, since removals carried out before the ruling operated in a zone of greater **legal uncertainty** than those carried out after the Court's **decision**. ### What retroactive legal cover means for officials already removed For officials removed before June 29, 2026, the ruling functions as a form of retroactive legal validation for actions that, at the time they occurred, existed in tension with the then-controlling **Humphrey's Executor precedent**. **Whether any of the removed officials pursued legal remedies during that period of uncertainty** is not documented in the sources consulted for this analysis, beyond Rebecca Slaughter's case itself, which produced the ruling under **examination**. ## Conclusion What is confirmed: on June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled six to three in Trump v. Slaughter, overturning the 91-year-old Humphrey's Executor precedent and expanding presidential removal power over independent agency officials. Since January 2025, more than 50 officials have been removed, including Rebecca Slaughter, Cathy Harris, and Deirdre Hamilton, three names attached to three separate agencies. What remains unresolved: the specific reasoning of the three dissenting justices, the precise legal boundary the majority drew, and whether the ruling's logic will eventually reach agencies like the Federal Reserve that have not yet been tested under it. *A dagger, in Cathy Harris's words, cuts once. What this ruling cuts next has not yet been decided by anyone who has said so publicly.* What the next removal will decide: whether this expanded authority stays confined to agencies already tested, or whether it becomes the standard tool for reshaping the federal government's independent institutions one firing at a time. *Ninety-one years protected a principle. Six votes replaced it. Fifty firings are the only proof, so far, of what replaced it is being used for.* *The ruling is final. What comes next, agency by agency, is not.* **By Maxime Marquette, columnist** ## Columnist's transparency note ### Editorial stance I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies. I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events. ### Method and sources This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here. **Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies. **Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations. When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**. ### Nature of the analysis The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted. My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors. This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text. ## Sources ### Primary sources - [The Guardian — Trump v. Slaughter ruling and agency official firings — July 14, 2026](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/14/federal-officials-fired-by-trump-supreme-court-ruling) - [New York Times — 9th and 7th Circuit rulings on immigrant detention — July 30, 2026](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/us/politics/appeals-courts-immigrant-detention-policy.html) - [Politico — FEMA-related firing under the administration — July 17, 2026](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/17/trump-fema-firing) ### Secondary sources - [Wikipedia — Domestic military deployments by the second Trump administration — accessed 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_military_deployments_by_the_second_Trump_administration) - [Raw Story — Harry Enten's (CNN) analysis on under-50 voters — July 30, 2026](https://www.rawstory.com/trump-voter-enthusiasm/) - [Raw Story — NBER study on ICE raids and employment — July 29, 2026](https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ice-raids-2677288289/) --- Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/a-91-year-old-wall-just-fell-and-trump-has-fired-50