On Dec. 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the president’s ability to fire the heads of independent, multi-member federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission

The president and his supporters are proponents of a doctrine known as the “unitary executive” theory – the idea that the president should have complete control over the executive branch. Under this theory, the president should be able to fire any member of the executive branch, and laws – like the one at the center of this case – that restrict his ability to do so violate the constitutional separation of powers between the three branches of government.

The dispute before the court next week began in March, when Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter, whom he originally nominated to the FTC in 2018. In 2023, then-President Joe Biden renominated her to serve a second term, which was scheduled to end in 2029.

Slaughter pointed to a long history – dating back to the founding of the United States – of “multimember agencies whose members are protected from at-will removal.” All three branches of government, she said, “have recognized that this agency structure advances the liberty interest that the separation of powers exists to protect”: Congress has created such agencies, presidents “have signed into law numerous bills creating, funding, and empowering ‘some two-dozen multimember independent agencies,’” and the Supreme Court has upheld those laws “time and again.”