Read the Most Chilling Lines From Justice Sotomayor’s ‘Slaughter’ Dissent on Trump’s Expanding Power: ‘Chaos Will Follow’
On the second-to-last day of its 2025-'26 term, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along party lines President Donald Trump can fire Rebecca Slaughter, who served as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2018 until her dismissal in 2025.
By Maya OlsonJune 30, 20261 min read
On the second-to-last day of its 2025-'26 term, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along party lines President Donald Trump can fire Rebecca Slaughter, who served as commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2018 until her dismissal in 2025. But the decision reaches far beyond one commissioner: By overturning nearly a century of precedent, the Court held that presidents may remove members of independent multimember agencies that Congress deliberately structured to operate with some distance from partisan politics.
We read all 49 pages of Sotomayor's urgent dissent and pulled out the most striking passages, so you don't have to—though after reading them, you just might want to.
