Justice exposes 'enormous power grab' in Trump Supreme Court case: legal expert

On Monday morning, December 8, the U.S. Supreme Court listened to oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter — a case dealing with President Donald Trump's ability, under the U.S. Constitution, to fire employees of independent government agencies.

Trump and his allies, in the case, are promoting a far-right legal doctrine known as the Unitary Executive Theory — which claims that presidents have total control over who can be fired in the federal government. But opponents of the Unitary Executive Theory vehemently disagree, arguing that Congress has the ability to create agencies that are independent from a president's executive powers. One of those opponents is Rebecca Slaughter, who is arguing that Trump had no right to fire her from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) because of the independence she enjoyed.

During the December 8 hearing, Solicitor General John Sauer was aggressively grilled by the High Court's three Democratic appointees: Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. And MS NOW's Lisa Rubin offered legal analysis of their arguments, emphasizing that Kagan was essentially accusing Trump of trying to carry out an "enormous power grab."

Rubin told Cabrera, "This concept of a unitary executive…. has gained currency among political conservatives," adding, "Certainly, it's not a legally conservative theory because it is a gigantic enlargement of executive power. That's not how legal conservatives have traditionally thought, but that is what's going on here."

According to Rubin, the "liberal justices" are "playing out the consequences of the logic being employed by the (Trump) Administration, which is (that) this isn't just about the FTC."

Rubin told Cabrera, "I want to read to you something that Justice Kagan said in her discussion with the solicitor general, John Sauer, because I thought it got to the heart of what this is really about…. The idea was that the president was supposed to do the executing, but he wasn't supposed to do the legislating…. In other words, in Justice Kagan's view, this is a power grab by the president… That, according to Justice Kagan and the other liberals on the Court, is an enormous power grab with real consequences for our country."

Georgetown University law professor Paul Butler, also on the panel, predicted that the High Court's GOP-appointed justices will "almost certainly" rule in Trump's favor and "say the president has the authority to fire the FTC commissioner."

"This outcome is virtually certain," Butler told Cabrera and Rubin — who agreed with him that the outcome in Trump v. Slaughter is a "fait accompli" and that the GOP-appointed supermajority will reject the arguments of Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson."

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