The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared ready Monday to grant President Donald Trump more power to remove officials from the Federal Trade Commission and similar agencies, despite laws giving them firing protections.

The 6-3 conservative-controlled court heard oral arguments Monday as the U.S. government seeks to overturn a lower court decision reinstating FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter after Trump fired her in March.

The court’s conservative wing repeatedly criticized a 90-year-old precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor, which limited the president’s ability to fire officials from the FTC and similar agencies without cause.

At one point during the oral arguments, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. called the precedent a “dried husk,” as the attorney for Slaughter and th

See Full Page