The Unitary Executive

Letters from an American

The Supreme Court's decision in Slaughter v. Trump expands presidential power over independent agencies, sparking debate over executive authority and separation of powers. The ruling fuels concerns about politicizing fed

Key takeaways

• Court upheld unitary executive theory

Transcript preview

June 29th, 2006. To show the importance of the slaughter case, 90 years of precedent has been completely and unequivocally overturned, greatly increasing presidential power at a time when it is most needed, President Donald J. Trump wrote this afternoon. He continued, Today's historic slaughtered decision by the Supreme Court is the greatest increase in presidential power in the last 100 years. Such a monumental ruling at such an important time. Political theorists Jacob T. Levy posted in response. No, see, overruled 90 years of president in order to expand presidential power is the way critics describe it. Your side says resisting is resisting it. intrusion into core executive functions, protecting the sanctity of the separation of powers, and acknowledging that the president has been whittled away. But Greg Sergeant of the New Republic countered that Trump constantly and explicitly holds up his naked corruption as a badge of honor that his supporters are supposed to thrill to and see benefit for themselves in. He thinks corruption is the highest form of winning. The case of Slaughter v. Trump began in March 2025 when Trump fired the last remaining Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Slaughter. Since 1935, the Supreme Court has said the President does not have the power to fire members of independent agencies created by Congress except for inefficiency, neglective duty, or malfeasance in office. Although Trump himself, he claimed he fired her because her continued service on the independent commission was inconsistent with the administration's priorities and that he had the right to do so under the authority granted to him by Article 2 of the Constitution, despite the fact Congress set up the position in such a way that it would be shielded from presidential politics. This argument is an attempt to establish the idea of the unitary executive, a theory the right wing has pushed since the 1980s when it began to distrust the will of voters as they expressed it through Congress and thus tried to find ways to assert the power of the president and reduce the power