Former federal prosecutor and ex-FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann on Monday flagged what he sees as a “chilling” word in U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ 6-3 majority opinion upholding the power of Donald Trump and any president to fire members of independent regulatory agencies for any reason.
Weissmann Warns of Far-Reaching Consequences
“It’s hard to stress enough for people the ramifications of this decision,” Weissmann told Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” of the ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, which stemmed from Trump’s March 2025 firing of Democratic-appointed FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. “It is so far-reaching,” he added.
Weissmann pointed to specific language in Roberts' opinion: “The language from the chief justice here continues in a very scary way, his theory of presidential power, saying that it’s necessary, what they ruled today, to have the vitality, and in a word, I found chilling, the ‘secrecy’ of the executive branch. That was a word that was not in the immunity decision, and should think about that, that this was trying to vindicate the presidential power.”
Ruling Unleashes Political Patronage
Weissmann argued that the ruling “unleashes political patronage.” “Why should people care? You do not want a Republican president to come in and fire every Democrat, and you do not want every Democratic president to come in and fire every Republican,” he said. “You want career people in place with experience, who are supposed to be apolitical, regardless of party.”
He described the decision as “very ahistoric” with “very, very long coattails in terms of how it’s going to affect our justice system.” The ruling effectively removes protections for members of independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, allowing presidents to dismiss them without cause, a departure from decades of precedent designed to insulate such agencies from political interference.
