Elena Kagan Warns Supreme Court 'Overriding' Congress to Give Trump a Win [View all]

Source: Newsweek

Published Sep 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM EDT | Updated Sep 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM EDT


Justice Elena Kagan warned Monday that the Supreme Court is "overriding" Congress to hand President Donald Trump sweeping new powers over independent agencies. Her dissent came after the court, in a 6-3 decision, allowed Trump to fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter while the justices consider whether to overturn a 90-year-old precedent limiting presidential removals.

The conservative majority offered no explanation, as is typical on its emergency docket, but signaled a willingness to revisit the landmark 1935 Humphrey's Executor ruling.

Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the court has repeatedly cleared firings that Congress explicitly prohibited, thereby shifting control of key regulatory agencies into the president's hands. "Congress, as everyone agrees, prohibited each of those presidential removals," Kagan wrote. "Yet the majority, stay order by stay order, has handed full control of all those agencies to the President."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Monday afternoon.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/kagan-supreme-court-congress-trump-win-ftc-2133934