Supreme Court Delivers Mixed Rulings on Presidential Firing Authority
Chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream highlights recent decisions from the Supreme Court regarding the boundaries of presidential authority. In Trump v. Slaughter, the court confirmed that the president can dismiss a commissioner from the Federal Trade Commission. Yet, in Trump v. Cook, the ruling indicated that the president doesn’t possess the power to unilaterally terminate a Federal Reserve governor. These critical opinions are casting new light on executive authority and the operation of independent agencies.
A federal judge has declared that the directive from the Trump administration requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to halve its workforce was illegal. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled on Friday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) overstepped by assuming control over FEMA’s personnel decisions, which led to thousands of disaster-response jobs being cut.
Despite FEMA being under the DHS umbrella, a federal law established post-Hurricane Katrina in 2005 prohibits the department from making significant reductions to FEMA’s responsibilities or functions. Illston found that DHS violated this law last year by attempting to prevent FEMA from renewing the temporary contracts of numerous on-call reservists essential for disaster response.
Illston noted, “There is no evidence in the record reflecting reasoned decision-making for this about-face or for the subsequent conditions DHS placed on FEMA’s renewal authority.” The ruling did not specify remedies or penalties, stating those would be addressed in a forthcoming decision next month. The involved parties must submit briefings on the outstanding relief in the case by October 9.
The unions involved argued that the proposed cuts were unlawful as they threatened FEMA’s core disaster-response capabilities, lacked congressional approval, and were initiated by former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rather than FEMA officials.
The Trump administration has maintained that FEMA possesses significant flexibility in managing its staffing levels. Interestingly, President Trump has suggested that FEMA might be eliminated altogether, proposing that states should take on emergency preparedness responsibilities.
In June, Illston had initially decided not to halt the job cuts, asserting FEMA had at least temporarily abandoned those plans. However, she observed on Friday that FEMA seemed to be advancing with the job reductions, projecting that its staffing levels would drop to 11,383 employees for the upcoming fiscal year—about half of past levels—with no solid justification for this figure.
In a separate matter, the judge criticized FEMA and DHS officials for communicating about staffing cuts on the Signal messaging app via personal cell phones and then deleting those messages. Illston indicated that those messages would have been pertinent to the case and suggested that their absence could imply they were detrimental to the defendants, further indicating unlawful conduct.
Fox News Digital sought comments from DHS and FEMA, but no immediate response was received. A FEMA spokesperson asserted that under President Trump and Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the agencies are prepared for the upcoming hurricane season, emphasizing their leadership and staffing capabilities.
