The Supreme Court of the United States. Reuters Yonhap News. 

On the 8th (local time), the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned a 90-year-old precedent, siding with President Donald Trump by temporarily allowing the president to dismiss commissioners of independent federal agencies.

According to reports from the AP and Reuters, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an "administrative stay" regarding the lower courts' "reinstatement orders" for Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic-appointed commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whom President Trump dismissed in March over antitrust and consumer protection disagreements.

As this decision is not a final ruling, the Supreme Court proceedings will continue.

However, Chief Justice Roberts' decision effectively reverses an existing precedent established in 1935.

At that time, the Supreme Court ruled that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 dismissal of FTC Commissioner William Humphrey, who opposed his New Deal policies, was illegal. This established the legal precedent that a president cannot remove commissioners of independent federal agencies or bodies for political reasons unless there is evidence of misconduct, neglect of duty, or inefficiency.

President Trump notified FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter of their dismissals via email last March.

The email stated, "Your continued service at the FTC is not in alignment with the priorities of my administration."

In response, Commissioner Slaughter filed a lawsuit. In July, Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled, citing the 1935 precedent, that President Trump's attempt to remove Slaughter failed to comply with the dismissal protections under federal law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit subsequently upheld the lower court's ruling in a 2-1 decision, leading the Department of Justice to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In filings submitted to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration argued that the president should have the authority to remove commissioners at his discretion, asserting that "the modern FTC exercises significantly more substantive power than the FTC of 1935."

Since the launch of the second Trump administration, the conservative-majority Supreme Court has been issuing a series of rulings favoring the president.

U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Reuters Yonhap News. 

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