Imagine a labor board chair who knows she will be fired if she rules against the president’s friends. Or a consumer safety official who approves a dangerous product because he fears losing his job. That’s no longer hypothetical. It’s the very real consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision Monday in Trump v. Slaughter.
These fears spring from the court’s decision to allow the president to remove the leaders of formerly independent agencies, not for cause but at the president’s whim. The Supreme Court’s decision guts independent agencies — a fixture of our nation’s executive branch for more than a century. In its latest expansion of executive power, the court ruled in a 6-3 decision to allow President Donald Trump to remove Rebecca Slaughter, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, overturning a decision dating back to 1935. In practice, the court’s decision allows the president to fire the heads of independent agencies, bipartisan commissions and boards for any reason: because he does not like their politics, their latest social media posts or their rulings on cases involving his friends, relatives or donors.
Presidents could even effectively shut down agencies when they dislike investigations into the conduct of their political donors and allies.
Independent agencies protect workers and consumers, regulate the media and play many other vital roles in our lives. Congress made them independent to ensure that they rely on expertise and operate free from political interference. The Supreme Court’s decision threatens to inject politics and corruption into these agencies’ functions. Presidents could even effectively shut down agencies when they dislike investigations into the conduct of their political donors and allies.
Let’s take the impact on workers’ rights. The National Labor Relations Board is supposed to resolve disputes between employers and employees over collective bargaining. Thanks to this ruling, its board members are now beholden to a president who can fire them at will. Unions and workers (not to mention businesses) will never know if the NLRB’s decisions are based on the best interpretation of the law or political favoritism. For instance, earlier this year, the NLRB dismissed a complaint against Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, asserting it lacked jurisdiction. Whether or not that determination was legally correct, decisions like it will now be viewed through a political lens, eroding trust in the agency’s neutrality.
Congress must act now to protect the public.
First, the legislative branch should allow individuals to go to court when they believe their rights have been violated under the statutes that created these agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Act. This ensures that workers, consumers and members of the public can vindicate their rights even if agencies are weakened or politicized.
A similar mechanism already exists under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. After the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reviews a claim, workers may pursue their own lawsuits. Even when the EEOC has dropped cases during the Trump administration — such as in cases involving transgender workers — those workers could still pursue their claims on their own. Contrast that with the NLRA, which has no individual right to sue. Unions and workers are stuck with a Trump-controlled NLRB.
Second, Congress should allow states to protect labor rights. Under current law, only the federal government can protect workers’ rights to join unions. That may have made sense when the NLRB — the agency that carries out that protection — had some independence from political winds as Congress intended. With the Slaughter decision, it no longer makes sense. States could help protect workers’ rights if they could pass their own labor laws. They could even pass laws that are more protective of labor rights if that is what their voters want.
Congress must close up the dangerous breach the court has created.
Finally, Congress has its own options to assure neutral adjudication of labor disputes. Congress could say the existing federal courts should protect labor rights, instead of the NLRB, or Congress could even create new specialized labor courts to hear these cases with the judges exercising particular expertise. Either approach would reduce the risk that outcomes are based on political pressure rather than legal judgment.
The Supreme Court has undermined Congress’s commitment to the public that important rights and protections will be enforced by experts free from the pressures of partisan politics. Now Congress must respond — and close up the dangerous breach the court has created.
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