The Dictatorship
The consequences of John Roberts’ FTC pronouncement will be felt long after Trump
On Monday, the Supreme Court turned a blind eye to President Donald Trump’s unlawful termination of a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission. In doing so, the court further strengthened the hand of an administration intent on tightening its grip on every aspect of the federal government. Once again, the nation’s highest court used its shadow docket to overturn two lower court rulings with minimal explanation — or, in this case, with no explanation at all. Once again, Trump asked a highly partisan Supreme Court to rubber-stamp a blatantly political action, one that clearly violates the spirit and letter of the law — and the court obliged.
This ruling, however, is bad not only for Trump’s critics but also for the viability of independent agencies. By rewriting the rules for Trump, the court has opened the door for future presidents of both parties to exploit its precedent. This decision signals the beginning of the end of these agencies that were created to protect the interests of the American people, not serve the political whims of whoever occupies the Oval Office.
Allowing a president to fire commissioners or board members who refuse to do his bidding eviscerates an agency’s autonomy.
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent watchdog agency created in 1914 to protect the public from deceptive or unfair business practices. For more than a century, the FTC has sought to be an objective referee of the marketplace by promoting competition, preventing monopolies and stopping scams and frauds. Congress specifically designed the FTC to be bipartisan and independent. The five commissioners have staggered seven-year terms, no more than three can be from the same political party, and they can be removed by the president only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
The only previous time a president attempted to remove an FTC commissioner was in 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt fired William Humphrey — who was appointed by Roosevelt’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover — over policy differences. Humphrey challenged his dismissal, and in the landmark 1935 case of Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the restriction on the president’s removal power to be constitutional and declared Humphrey’s termination illegal. The court explained that the president’s power over the executive branch is not without limits and that Congress’ authority to create independent agencies not subject to the president’s control “cannot well be doubted.”
That was then.
In March, Trump fired Democratic commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, whom he himself had appointed in 2018, claiming her service is “inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities.” Slaughter sued, and in July, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled in her favor, citing Humphrey’s nearly identical case from 90 years earlier.
But in between Slaughter’s filing her lawsuit and AliKhan’s ruling, the Supreme Court weakened the independence of other federal agencies. In May, it paused lower court rulings reinstating members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board whom Trump had fired without cause, in violation of the applicable laws. The Supreme Court did not consider the appeals of those rulings — which had been upheld by an appellate court — in its usual manner of extensive briefing and oral argument. Instead, it used its emergency docket — also known as the “shadow docket” — to stop the rulings from being implemented while offering scant accounting of its reasoning. In a two-page ruling (the judicial equivalent of condensing a John Grisham novel into a tweet), the Court’s majority indicated that the for-cause removal restrictions for the NLRB and the MSPB were unconstitutional.
On Monday, only six days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., approved the lower court’s reinstatement of Slaughter’s going into effect, Chief Justice Roberts issued a two-sentence orderwith no explanation, that reversed course and permits Slaughter’s removal.
Supreme Court precedent, of course, outlasts any administration.
Humphrey’s Executor is on life support. That presumably means nothing to the majority of Americans, but they will certainly feel the impact of its loss. Congress established many independent agencies with express limits on the president’s removal authority. Examples include the National Transportation Safety Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Reserve, just to name a few. (In its May ruling, the Supreme Court’s majority expressly distinguished the Federal Reserve from the NLRB and the MSPB. Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent welcomed that distinction “to avoid imperiling the Fed” but noted it was “out of the blue” because the Fed’s independence rests on the same legal foundation as that of those and other agencies.)
As the Supreme Court explained in Humphrey’s, for-cause removal goes hand in hand with an agency’s independence. Allowing a president to fire commissioners or board members who refuse to do his bidding eviscerates an agency’s autonomy. With Monday’s ruling, the Supreme Court is not merely reinterpreting Humphrey’s to narrow its application for other agencies. It is throwing out the precedent completely, giving nearly limitless power to Trump to force every supposedly independent federal agency to serve his political interests.
We would be naive to expect the demise of agencies’ independence to miraculously reappear after this president leaves office. Supreme Court precedent, of course, outlasts any administration.
As the White House swings back and forth between parties, we can expect significant policy changes from different presidents’ handpicked loyalists who are responsible for keeping our highways and skyways running smoothly, setting workplace safety standards and maintaining the stability of our housing finance system, as well as controlling the monetary policy that affects our mortgage payments, fortifies our economy and protects against hyperinflation.
Even worse, we could see the extreme politicization of these agencies. Trump supporters who cheer the president’s having absolute authority over (formerly) independent agencies will shudder to think about, for example, the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcing truth-in-advertising rules only against conservative media outlets or the Environmental Protection Agency’s fast-tracking permits and subsidies for renewable energy projects that use union labor.
Congress made the FTC independent to insulate it from the “volatile political headwinds that might jeopardize its mission,” as Judge AliKhan wrote in her ruling reinstating Slaughter. That insulation from political pressure promotes independent agencies’ effectiveness, maintains their credibility and ensures that they serve the public, not the president. But this Supreme Court, in egregious acts of what conservatives usually decry as judicial activism, is circumventing Congress’ intent and putting these agencies under the president’s thumb.
For nearly a century, for-cause removal protections have helped preserve our constitutional system by balancing power between the legislative and executive branches and protecting critical federal agencies from the political interests of the president. Overturning that precedent does not merely weaken the FTC and other agencies; it fundamentally changes the checks and balances that safeguard our democracy and guarantee our liberty. Placing this new power in the hands of current and future administrations leads to a government in which public accountability is a mirage and partisan loyalty is reality.
Andrew Warren
Andrew Warren is senior counsel at Democracy Defenders Action. He previously was a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department and the elected district attorney in Tampa, Florida.
The Dictatorship
Trump is right that an NFL team should hire John Harbaugh. But everybody knows that.
ByJason Page
The Baltimore Ravens’ decision to fire Super Bowl-winning head Coach John Harbaugh after Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers kept them out of the playoffs wasn’t surprising to those of us who closely follow the NFL. Harbaugh had coached the team for 18 years, the Ravens had underperformed, and sometimes a new voice is needed in the locker room.
Sports teams have often had to choose between a coach who’s been successful in the past and a superstar player they need to be successful now. In this case, the Ravens had to choose between Harbaugh, who won Super Bowl XLVII in 2012 and quarterback Lamar Jackson, a two-time NFL MVP.
The Ravens underperformed, and sometimes a new voice is needed in the locker room.
If changes are to come, then the Ravens’ salary constraints necessitated Harbaugh that Harbaugh be the one to go. Harbaugh knows the industry as well as anyone and surely understands why the Ravens decided as they did. And because he’s still under contract for two more seasons, he’ll still be getting paid.
But Wednesday morning, a typical end-of-the-season-coach-carousel story got injected with politics when President Donald Trump made a Truth Social post directed at other NFL teams that read: “HIRE JOHN HARBAUGH, FAST. HE, AND HIS BROTHER, ARE TOTAL WINNERS!!!”
It’s worth noting that Harbaugh and his brother Los Angeles Chargers Coach Jim Harbaugh met President Trump in the Oval Office in July. John Harbaugh defended his decision to meet with Trump to a reporter at Ravens training camp who asked why he’d meet with him after Trump’s disparaging remarks about Baltimore. “It was amazing. It was awesome. And I promise you, I root for our president,” Harbaugh said as he criticized the framing of the question. “I want our president to be successful just like I want my quarterback to be successful, and I want my team to be successful,” Harbaugh said, adding that he’d also met presidents Obama and Biden.
What a crew — the Harbaugh brothers and Nvidia CEO hanging with Trump today in the Oval Office. pic.twitter.com/i4K7p6cTSB
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 11, 2025
Trump is infamously transactional. Was his social media post simply him returning the favor after Harbaugh had kind words about his visit to the White House? Probably. Can anybody recall another instance where the President has weighed in on a professional head coach’s firing?
But Trump needn’t have bothered trying to sell the NFL on Harbaugh. Teams already know who he is. And he has plenty options.
In fact, his agent Bryan Harlan said that 7 different teams reached out expressing their interest within 45 minutes of Harbaugh’s firing. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that two NFL teams that don’t even have open head coaching positions were among those that inquired. Who knows how many more teams have reached out since then.
Trump needn’t have bothered trying to sell the NFL on Harbaugh. Teams already know who he is.
His destination may largely depend on what Harbaugh values. If sticking it to the Ravens is important to him, then he could choose the division rival Cleveland Browns, who just fired Coach Kevin Stefanski. The Browns have a young up-and-coming quarterback in Shedeur Sanders and a future Hall-of-Fame defensive star in Myles Garrett. But the Browns have been mostly disastrous under owner Jimmy Haslam’s watch. So maybe not.
The Giants have a young stud quarterback in Jaxson Dart and a group of talented young players on both sides of the ball. But the New York media has eaten alive some of the best when things don’t go well. Does Harbaugh want that kind of challenge?
The Cardinals, Falcons, Titans and Raiders all have openings as well. The Cardinals and Falcons have questions about the starting quarterback position that are unresolved. The Titans have 2025’s No. 1-pick Cam Ward but a less than appetizing cast around him. The Raiders are the Raiders. Or are they? Minority Owner Tom Brady is taking a more assertive role in the teams activities. Could they make a huge play for Harbaugh? More importantly, could he be tempted by the opportunity to lead the Raiders out of what seems like an eternity of darkness?
Despite Trump’s push for Harbaugh’s immediate hiring, there is one last option for the 63-year-old coach. He could do nothing. He could take time off. Or — like Super Bowl-winning Coach Sean Payton did between leaving the New Orleans Saints and signing with the Denver Broncos — Harbaugh could jump into the broadcast booth.
He’ll be a hot commodity this year and, if he wanted to take a break, then he can rest assured knowing he’d be just as hot of a commodity a year from now.
But that seems to me to be the least likely option. Harbaugh is uber-competitive, and there are teams that need a coach. And they don’t need any prodding from Trump to reach out.
Jason Page
Jason Page is the host of the nationally syndicated daily TV show “SportsWrap w/Jason Page.”
ByAlan Elrod
In a MS NOW column last May, I wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions were becoming so reckless that a fatal encounter was all but inevitable. On Wednesday, my prediction sadly came true, as an agent shot a woman at close range in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement action, killing her.
President Trump posted on social media that the woman was a “professional agitator” who “ran over” the agent (which video plainly shows is not true), while members of the Trump administration are already calling her a “domestic terrorist.” Accounts like Libs of TikTok leapt to argue that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were acting in self-defense and that the driver had attempted to “ram” them.
This moment was always going to come. It is the logical result of Trumpism and MAGA extremism, both in theory and practice.
We don’t know what transpired before the multiple videos of the incident begin, but, several camera angles seem to indicate that the use of force was unnecessary. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. posted to X“Enough. This is murder. Local officials must prosecute ICE. And Congress should strip them of their immunity.”
This moment was always going to come. It is the logical result of Trumpism and MAGA extremism, both in theory and practice.
First, ICE’s application of lethal violence is the natural product of an administration animated by violence as a core feature of its politics. Trump has repeatedly called for people to “beat the hell” out of his opponents. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has put the spectacle of violence at the center of her propaganda efforts, even posing in front of CECOT prisoners in a photo op that I compared at the time to a lynching postcard. Violence and the performance of violence are everywhere.
Amid this backdrop of bloodlust, ICE has waged a recruitment drive drenched in war metaphors and martial imagery. The type of person sought by DHS to perform immigration enforcement is someone with a fervor for guns and an eagerness to apply violence.
As Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee recently reported for the Washington Postthis has become an explicit tactic within the agency, circulated in what DHS calls its “wartime recruitment” strategy. They note that DHS’ strategy was to direct recruitment to “people with an interest in ‘military and veterans’ affairs,’ ‘physical training,’ or ‘conservative news and politics,’ and would target people whose lifestyles are ‘patriotic’ or ‘conservative-leaning.’” DHS also sought to target conservative radio show listeners, and users with interests in “conservative thought leaders, gun rights organizations [and] tactical gear brands.”
This is an administration built on a fundamentally violent worldview, nourishing violent impulses within the national community and seeking out the most brutish among us to implement its draconian policies.
The MAGA view is that ICE’s actions — like all state actions against unprotected groups — must be presumed to be always already legitimate.
But all the cultivation and direction of violence against both immigrants and American citizens is possible because of a second feature of Trumpism: the friend/enemy distinction. This idea, which comes from Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt, has become, as Zack Beauchamp has argued, an energizing logic on the right. Beauchamp summarizes“Schmitt’s chief insight into democracy was seeing how the politics of illiberal groupism, of replacing ‘all men are created equal’ with ‘friend and enemy,’ could justify a brand of authoritarian politics in seemingly democratic terms.”
In essence, some people belong to favored “friend” groups. Everyone else is an enemy, outside the normal presumptions and protections of the state.
Major MAGA influencers like Robby Starbuck and Nick Sortor have already linked the ICE shooting incident to the police murder of George Floyd, suggesting Democrats intend to lie about the shooting to foment unrest. Sortor even called for the jailing of Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, accusing him of “trying to spark a riot.”
The MAGA view is that ICE’s actions — like all state actions against unprotected groups — must be presumed to be always already legitimate. Opposition to those actions must consequently be presumed to be illegitimate and dangerous.
This is not a formula for state accountability. It’s a recipe for authoritarianism.
The cumulative implication of all this is simple: immigrants and those who want to see them treated humanely are not subject to the same rights and protections as MAGA Americans. This also explains the demands of commentators like The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh that New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani be stripped of his U.S. citizenship. It explains the extrapolation of the fraud scandal in Minnesota into an excuse to deport Somali-Americans.
ICE, as it exists, is about the raw application of Trumpist authoritarianism. And they’re seeking the most violent and illiberal among us to implement its mission. This was always going to happen. And it is almost certainly going to happen again.
Alan Elrod
Alan Elrod is the president and CEO of The Pulaski Institution, a new think tank dedicated to the connection between global politics and economics and heartland areas. He lives outside Little Rock, Arkansas.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman Wednesday during an operation in Minneapolis, immediately escalating tensions over the Trump administration’s decision to send some 2,000 immigration agents into the city.
“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” an angry Mayor Jacob Frey said at an afternoon news conference. Federal agents, he said, are “sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
The Minnesota Star Tribuneidentified the woman as 37-year old Renee Nicole Good. Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the outlet that her daughter was “loving, forgiving and affectionate” and that she was “probably terrified” during the encounter.
The incident, coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration operations in blue states and cities, immediately became politicized. After watching video of the encounter, President Donald Trump claimed the woman who was shot “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” He also said it was “hard to believe” that the ICE agent is alive and added that he is recovering at a hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Wednesday evening news conference that the woman was “blocking” officers who were attempting to dislodge their vehicle from the snow.
“ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement. But she refused to obey their commands,” Noem said. “She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
Noem said the ICE officer, “fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public,” fired shots defensively.
Noem said the officer had been released from the hospital and was with family. “Any loss of life is a tragedy…all of us agree in this situation, it was preventable,” she said.
The incident, coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration operations in blue states and cities, immediately became politicized.
Democrats, however — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with whom Noem said she spoke — questioned Trump and Noem’s accounting of the events. Walz warned in his own press conference that Trump “would make this about me” and that the shooting was “so, so preventable” and “so unnecessary.”
Walz called on Minnesotans to remain calm and said he is prepared to activate the National Guard if needed. Police Chief Brian O’Hara toldMinneapolis his officers last month to intervene if they see ICE agents using excessive force against residents or risk losing their jobs.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said officers were “conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism.”
McLaughlin said the officer feared for his life and “the safety of the public.”
“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers,” she said. “The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
And Stephen Millera senior presidential aide and architect of Trump’s mass deportation strategy, called video he posted of the incident “domestic terrorism.”
Local Minneapolis officials, however, feel differently.
According to Frey’s office, Minneapolis police officers responded to the reports of shots fired “just after 9:30 a.m., and found a woman with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Minneapolis firefighters removed the woman from the vehicle and immediately began lifesaving measures until paramedics could respond.” She was transported to a local hospital, where she eventually died.
Frey accused the Trump administration of trying to “spin this as an action of self-defense.”
“Having seen the video … myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit,” the mayor said. “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was similarly skeptical.
“There is no evidence that has been presented to justify this killing. [DHS] Secretary Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar and has zero credibility. The masked ICE agent who pulled the trigger should be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law for acting with depraved indifference to human life,” Jeffries said.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris called the incident “shocking,” and said the video “makes it clear that the Trump administration’s explanation of this shooting is pure gaslighting.”
O’Hara said the woman was not the target of the law enforcement investigation, was unarmed and was shot in the head.
Bystander video verified by MS NOW clearly contradicts key parts of Trump’s description. It shows the car partially blocking a two-lane street in a snowy residential neighborhood.
The footage, which begins moments before the shooting, shows a handful of people milling about, filming the agents as they walk around and toward the vehicle. Whistles — a tactic used by “ICE observers” to warn people that agents are in the area — can be heard.
One of the officers puts his hand on the driver’s door handle and loudly repeats, “Get out of the car!”
The car briefly moves in reverse, then starts to drive off when three gunshots ring out, and the car crashes into a parked vehicle. The officer who fired his gun was standing in the street in the direction the car was facing.
The agent holding the door handle stumbles but stays on his feet as the car drives off. None of the other officers comes in contact with the car, and none appears significantly injured, if at all.
Several people at the scene are heard yelling expletives right after the shots were fired.
Residents who spoke to MS NOW at the scene said they saw what appeared to be blood on the deployed airbag on the driver’s side.
Shortly after the shooting, residents gathered around federal agents in vehicles, shouting at them and calling the location a crime scene.
The Trump administration launched a massive immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area this week, deploying approximately 2,000 federal agents to the state.
Federal law enforcement officials have been sent to other Democratic-led cities over the past year, sparking fierce criticism from local lawmakers.
In October, a federal agent shot a woman five times during an immigration crackdown in Chicago in what the administration similarly characterized as a defensive act. Federal prosecutors brought assault charges against her, but moved to dismissthem after the agent’s text messages bragging about the shootingwere presented in court.
At the news conference, Frey addressed the federal immigration enforcement agency directly.
“I have a message for ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
___
Nnamdi Egwuonwu contributed to this report.
Alex Tabet is a reporter for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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