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03-07-2026
WASHINGTON: The United States Supreme Court on Monday issued a series of major rulings related to President Donald Trump, including three that went against him and one that went in his favor.
The issues decided ranged from the president’s authority over independent government regulators to voting rights and a sexual assault judgement.
Federal firing restrictions overturned
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court increased Trump’s executive powers to fire members of independent government agencies without having to give a reason.
The court did this by backing the Republican president’s sacking of a Democratic Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member, Rebecca Slaughter, expanding his powers over the government and overturning a 1935 precedent that had recognized the authority of Congress to protect leaders of certain regulatory agencies from presidential removal at will.
Trump dismissed Slaughter last year without providing a reason. It is understood that the two disagreed over policy. Lower courts upheld her claim that the move violated rules Congress put in place to protect the members of dozens of independent government agencies.
The decision by the Supreme Court that Trump was authorized to fire her without a reason is expected to have wide-ranging implications. Since the start of his second term in January last year, Trump has aggressively sought to expand the president’s executive powers as he works to transform the US government and put political allies in key positions.
Trump hailed the verdict in a social media post, saying it expanded presidential power “at a time when it is most needed”.
“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers,” he wrote.
In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the majority opinion upended the separation of powers.
“Today, the majority replaces 90 years of proven, workable practice with a half-baked theory of executive power that is simultaneously all encompassing yet also subject to necessary but undefined exceptions,” Sotomayor wrote.
“The one thing that does appear to be clear going forward is that chaos will follow.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also slammed the opinion, stating: “Donald Trump has fired Democratic appointees and seized control of formerly independent agencies so they serve him and his billionaire friends instead of the American public.”
Firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cook blocked
However, as an exception to the above decision, the court refused to allow Trump to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as it stood firm in a 5-4 decision to preserve the central bank’s independence against an unprecedented challenge by the president.
No other president since the central bank’s founding in 1913 has sought to oust a Fed governor. And the court ultimately blocked Trump from removing Cook from her post for now, providing a safeguard for the Fed specifically.
Trump had cited unproven mortgage fraud allegations, which Cook denies, as justification for the firing. Cook called the allegations a pretext to fire her over monetary policy differences as Trump presses the Fed to cut interest rates.
The US central bank is a nonpartisan institution that sets monetary policy for the world’s largest economy. Its governors are appointed by the president and vetted by the Senate. (Int’l News Desk)
