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What the Supreme Court rulings mean for presidential power · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the news hour.
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  Speaker 2: The US Supreme Court today issued two major rulings that
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  Speaker 2: significantly expand presidential power and President Donald Trump's attempt to
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  Speaker 2: further reshape the federal government.
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  Speaker 3: In a five to four ruling written by Chief Justice
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  Speaker 3: John Roberts, the Court's justices said the President does not
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  Speaker 3: have the power to fire Lisa Cook, a member of
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  Speaker 3: the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the decision, the
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  Speaker 3: Chief Justice wrote, quote to accept any one of the
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  Speaker 3: Administration's arguments would in effect transform the Federal Reserve's for
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  Speaker 3: cause protection into atwill employment, an interpretive leap out of
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  Speaker 3: step with the statute Congress enacted and our nation's tradition
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  Speaker 3: of central banking protected from political interference. But in a
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  Speaker 3: separate ruling issue today, Justice Roberts handed the president broader
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  Speaker 3: power to fire the heads of independent agencies, overturning a
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  Speaker 3: nearly century old legal president. In that case, which involved
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  Speaker 3: the removal of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, the Chief
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  Speaker 3: Justice said, quote, subordinates to exercise the President's power are
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  Speaker 3: subject to removal by him. The President celebrated the Slaughter
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  Speaker 3: decision in a post on his social media platform saying
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  Speaker 3: the Justices increased presidential power quote at a time when
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  Speaker 3: it's most needed. For more on today's rulings, I'm joined
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  Speaker 3: now by News Hour Supreme Court analyst and SCOTUSblog co
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  Speaker 3: founder Amy Howe, and you.
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  Speaker 2: Good to see you.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, good to see you too.
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  Speaker 3: So two rulings on presidential power, different directions.
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  Speaker 1: For each one.
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  Speaker 3: Let's start with the ruling for Lisa Cook. Why did
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  Speaker 3: the justices block her firing?
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  Speaker 2: For now?
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  Speaker 1: So the justice is the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts,
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  Speaker 1: really stressed the importance of the Fed's independence. They pointed
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  Speaker 1: to the First and Second National Banks and said that
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  Speaker 1: Congress had really wanted those to be independent and that
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  Speaker 1: the FED followed in those footsteps. They talked about the
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  Speaker 1: importance of having monetary policy be independent of outside influence,
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  Speaker 1: and that if the President could fire a FED governor
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  Speaker 1: for any reason, that it would potentially impede on that independence.
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  Speaker 1: And so they said that Lisa Cook was entitled to
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  Speaker 1: notice and an opportunity to be heard before she could
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  Speaker 1: be fired, and that she hadn't gotten that when President
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  Speaker 1: Trump attempted to fire her in a truth social post.
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  Speaker 3: And in a statement, we should know Lisa Cook hailed
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  Speaker 3: the decision as one affirming a key principle, as she
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  Speaker 3: put it, quote that the Federal Reserve must make all
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  Speaker 3: its policy decisions guided by evidence and independent judgment and
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  Speaker 3: free from political interference. But amy is this ruling a
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  Speaker 3: good sign for the FED, where the President has tried
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  Speaker 3: to exhort more controlled or is it just a temporary
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  Speaker 3: pause in that fight.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's a good sign for the FED. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we've got five justices who feel very strongly, including Justice
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  Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh, about the Fed's independence, and it seems, you know,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps the president could try to find cause to fire
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  Speaker 1: a member of the FED. Certainly this doesn't rule that out,
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  Speaker 1: but the majority's ruling certainly makes it much harder for
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  Speaker 1: him to do that.
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  Speaker 3: All right, Let's turn now to the Slaughter decision that
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  Speaker 3: involves the firing of the FTC Commissioner. As we noted,
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  Speaker 3: and Justice Roberts also wrote the majority opinion here, ruling
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  Speaker 3: the president can fire members of independent agencies. How did
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  Speaker 3: Roberts justify that presidential power?
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  Speaker 1: So it's kind of a corollary to the idea I
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  Speaker 1: think was Harry S. Truman. The buck stops here. He
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  Speaker 1: talked about the idea that the president is the head
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  Speaker 1: of the executive branch and really has to carry out
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  Speaker 1: all of the laws. And he said to do that,
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  Speaker 1: the president needs to make sure that everyone who's working
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  Speaker 1: for him is working effectively and needs to be able
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  Speaker 1: to fire the people who aren't. And so there was
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  Speaker 1: this nineteen thirties decision called Humphreys Executor, in which the
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court had upheld the very law that Rebecca Slaughter
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  Speaker 1: was relying on in this case. And the Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: basically said that that was a very narrow view of
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  Speaker 1: what the FTC was doing then, But certainly now the
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  Speaker 1: FTC is exercising what the Supreme Court called executive power.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it enforces laws, it can bring lawsuits, it
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  Speaker 1: carries out investigations, it can impose fines, and that's the
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  Speaker 1: kind of power that really belongs to the president.
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  Speaker 3: Morbecaes Slaughter reacted to the ruling today. Here's part of
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  Speaker 3: what she had to say.
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  Speaker 2: What we've seen is a massive expansion of executive power
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  Speaker 2: at the expense of Congress, who designed these agencies to
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  Speaker 2: work on behalf of the people and not the powerful.
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  Speaker 2: And it's at the expense of those people who deserve
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  Speaker 2: a government that fights for them without fear or favor,
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  Speaker 2: and doesn't just reward the president's allies and punish his
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  Speaker 2: perceived enemies.
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  Speaker 3: Amy, how in your view does this shape or reshape
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  Speaker 3: presidential power.
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  Speaker 1: It's really an enormous expansion of presidential power. Just as
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  Speaker 1: Sonya said, Amayor in her descent, noted that obviously this
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  Speaker 1: doesn't apply just to the FTC, but to you know,
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  Speaker 1: she said, potentially dozens of what had until now been
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  Speaker 1: independent agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Merit Systems
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  Speaker 1: Protection Board, and many others that Congress had intended to
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  Speaker 1: be independent from the president. But now the president can
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  Speaker 1: control who's part of those agencies.
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  Speaker 3: There's another big decision I need to ask you about.
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  Speaker 3: That was the Supreme Court rejecting President Trump's push to
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  Speaker 3: review the verdict in the Egen Carroll case that involved
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  Speaker 3: a five million dollar civil judgment against him. That was
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  Speaker 3: after a jury found that he had sexually abused and
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  Speaker 3: defamed the writer Egen Carroll. The President says that he
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  Speaker 3: plans to fight the ruling. Does he have a path
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  Speaker 3: for further appeal here? There's really not much of a path.
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  Speaker 1: You know, certainly he could ask the Supreme Court to
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  Speaker 1: consider this again. They almost never do. This was a
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  Speaker 1: really unusual case in the sense that he'd appealed asking
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  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court to take up this case, the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court had put off even considering it over and over
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  Speaker 1: again for a couple of months, and then today, without
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  Speaker 1: any comment, they turned it down. You know, there was
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  Speaker 1: no one None of the justices, as they sometimes do,
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  Speaker 1: wrote any separate writings to say that they would have
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  Speaker 1: taken up this case. There was no sign that any
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  Speaker 1: of the justices necessarily were interested in doing anything with it.
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  Speaker 3: Another big day at the Court. More to come. The
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  Speaker 3: News Tower Supreme Court analysts gotis blog co founder Amy
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  Speaker 3: how Thank you so much.
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