The Supreme Court is sitting on two cases that could decide how much control President Trump has over the federal agencies that operate outside his direct command.
One case targets a 91-year-old precedent that has protected independent agency officials from removal.
The other could leave the Federal Reserve standing as a special exception.
Together, they go straight to the heart of executive power and the sprawling administrative state.
The central question is simple: can a president fire the officials who run powerful agencies without giving a reason Congress already approved?
For decades, the answer has mostly been no. Trump is asking the Court to change that.
Fox News laid out the split between the two cases and why the justices may not treat them the same way.
The first case, Trump v. Slaughter, involves former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, whom Trump removed after returning to office. The fight is whether the for-cause removal protections Congress wrote for FTC commissioners violate the separation of powers.
That puts Humphrey’s Executor directly in the crosshairs. The 1935 ruling said a president could not fire FTC commissioners at will, and it became the legal foundation for the modern independent-agency model.
Fox News also highlighted the Cook distinction. That case involves Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and asks whether Trump had a valid for-cause reason to remove her, which is a narrower question than whether the protection itself can survive.
That difference could let the justices expand presidential control over agencies like the FTC while still preserving a measure of independence for the central bank.
The likely split is important. Slaughter asks whether the protection itself is constitutional, while Cook asks whether the president satisfied a protection that already exists.
The procedural posture of the Cook case shows how carefully the Court is handling the Fed question.
The Supreme Court docket identifies the matter as case number 25A312, Trump versus Cook, involving Lisa Cook’s seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.