Andrea Hsu

Let's listen to Justice Kagan.

And Justice Sotomayor said that the administration is asking the court to destroy the very structure of government and take away from Congress this idea that some agencies are better off independent.

Of course, Leila, you know, with the current makeup of the court, it's hard to see how that independence will stand.

And in fact, Thomas Berry with the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, says he is really confident the court will overturn the 90-year-old precedent that limited the president's power of removal.

And he spoke with NPR just after the arguments.

And I know one of those issues is the Federal Reserve, right?

Yeah, and the court is going to be tackling a whole different case about that next month.

But yesterday, Solicitor General Sauer did quote the court's own shadow docket order that called the Fed a quasi-private, uniquely structured entity with a distinct history.

You know, whether the conservative majority shifts their thinking on that after next month's arguments, that remains to be seen.

But for the moment, the Fed aside, it seems the court is prepared to give the president a lot more control over agencies that traditionally were independent.

NPR's Andrea Hsu.

Thank you for your reporting, Andrea.

Thanks for having me.

Now, the Supreme Court, through its emergency docket, already signaled that it might create a special carve-out for the Fed.

And it will hear arguments on that in January.

But in today's case, conservative justices dismissed the idea that granting the president more powers would destabilize the government.

Instead, they raise their own hypotheticals of what could happen if the court continues to insulate independent agencies from the president's control.

What if Congress decided to give members 20-year terms?

Why couldn't Congress just convert traditional cabinet agencies to multi-member commissions?

The justices heard arguments today in a case involving President Trump's firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.