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Supreme Court Hands Trump Near-Total Control Over Federal Regulators — and Crypto Takes Note
- The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that presidents may fire commissioners of independent agencies without cause, overturning the 1935 Humphrey’s Executor precedent.
- The decision places the SEC and CFTC, crypto’s main market regulators, under direct presidential control, while a companion ruling preserved the Federal Reserve’s independence.
- The case was bankrolled in part by crypto venture firm Paradigm, whose policy chief is married to the fired Democratic FTC commissioner at the centre of the dispute.
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that presidents can fire the commissioners of independent federal agencies without cause, a 6-3 decision that overturns nearly 90 years of precedent and hands the White House sweeping new control over the regulators that police crypto.
The ruling in Trump v. Slaughter discards Humphrey’s Executor, the 1935 case that had barred presidents from removing agency commissioners except for cause.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the conservative majority, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting. The decision arose from President Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic Federal Trade Commission member dismissed without cause in 2025.
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Markets Regulators Lose Their Buffer
Though the case concerned the FTC, its logic extends to every multi-member agency wielding executive power, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both now sit under direct presidential control.
A companion 5-4 decision in Trump v. Cook carved out the Federal Reserve, preserving its independence and blocking the removal of Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
Keep in mind the SEC and CFTC are the agencies that would write and enforce the rules for digital-asset markets. With commissioners removable at will, their leadership now turns more directly on who occupies the White House. The SEC currently has three Republican commissioners and no Democrats, while the CFTC is led by a lone Republican chairman, leaving little partisan check on either body’s direction.
The dispute was entangled with the industry from the start. Slaughter’s husband serves as policy chief at Paradigm, a major crypto venture firm that helped fund the legal challenge as it climbed to the Supreme Court.
The outcome also reshapes the fight over the CLARITY Act, a bill that would legalise most US crypto activity and grant the SEC and CFTC broad authority over it.
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Author
José Oramas
José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
