Rebecca Slaughter was helping her daughter rehearse for an elementary school production of Beauty and the Beast when the email arrived informing her she had been fired from the Federal Trade Commission. The termination, delivered in March 2025, became the centerpiece of a case that would reshape the relationship between the presidency and independent federal agencies.
Slaughter, a Democratic commissioner appointed to the FTC in 2018, has become the face of a broader pushback against what fired federal officials describe as a fundamental erosion of civil service protections. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter to dramatically expand presidential authority to remove members of independent agencies, overturning a 91-year-old precedent that had limited such power.
"My stomach just dropped," Slaughter recalled of learning her job was gone. She was not alone. The Trump administration has dismissed more than 50 federal officials since January 2025, many from agencies created by Congress with statutory protections designed to shield them from executive interference.
Slaughter and fellow FTC Democratic Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya both received termination notices that day. Bedoya, unable to afford the financial hit of unemployment, resigned and stepped away from fighting back. Slaughter, supported by her husband's income, filed suit challenging her firing. A federal judge reinstated her in July 2025, but the Trump administration appealed immediately. When the Supreme Court took the case in September and temporarily removed Slaughter from her position pending resolution, the writing was on the wall.
"If they did not want to overturn a 91-year-old precedent, they would have not taken the case," Slaughter said of that ominous signal.
The court's final decision has left her and other fired officials grappling with what they see as a catastrophic shift in how American government will function. Slaughter now worries that agencies meant to serve the public interest will become hostage to presidential whim, with officials facing removal if their rulings displease the White House or its wealthy benefactors.
"Are companies going to be excused from lying and cheating because they've donated to the ballroom or to the president's inauguration?" Slaughter asked. "That makes a real difference in whether the economy works for the people or just the powerful."
Cathy Harris, fired from her position at the Merit Systems Protection Board, used sharper language. The MSPB exists specifically to protect merit-based federal hiring from partisan manipulation. Harris characterized the Supreme Court ruling as "a dagger in the heart of the civil service."
"Unless Congress takes action to shore it up, people aren't going to want to go work for the federal government, because they're going to be concerned that they could be fired for political partisan reasons," Harris said. Her fears were underscored by reporting that the Trump administration secretly influenced the MSPB to rule in favor of expanded presidential power on constitutional grounds that directly contradict the agency's founding mission.
Harris warned that the Slaughter decision will transform federal employment entirely. "It means that the White House will, without fear or without hesitancy, interfere with what used to be independent operations of these agencies," she said. The guardrails Congress installed to prevent such meddling would become meaningless.
Deirdre Hamilton, fired from the National Mediation Board in October 2025, faces a different legal wrinkle. Her term had expired, but federal law requires board members to serve until their replacements are qualified. Trump fired her without nominating anyone to replace her, effectively leaving the three-member board unable to function. The board administers the Railway Labor Act, which prevents economic disruptions in the rail and airline industries.
"The emphasis is on stability," Hamilton explained. "That's why the law provides that board members stay until their replacements join. Leaving the board empty is not serving the American people."
Hamilton remains listed on the agency's official website as a current member, even as she and her attorneys await a chance to file a response to the Supreme Court's ruling. The White House declined to comment on the terminations. Donald Trump called the decision a "big win."
Author James Rodriguez: "This ruling amounts to stripping away the last serious constraints on presidential control of the bureaucracy, and the fired officials raising alarms aren't being alarmist, they're being accurate about what comes next."
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