Trump Admin Waiting on Four Relief Requests for Supreme Court

The Trump administration is still waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on four requests for emergency relief while the justices are away from Washington on recess until the end of September.

The Justice Department has filed multiple emergency relief requests with the Supreme Court over the last several weeks, including requests to pause an order that would force the administration to spend billions in foreign aid already approved by Congress, a request allowing the administration's policy limiting passport sex markings, and a petition to allow temporary protected status for Venezuelans.

Another request concerns President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The Justice Department is asking the court to take the case before a lower court makes a ruling. The court on Monday agreed to take up the case and allowed the firing to take place, at least until a final ruling.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented to the court's majority decision, writing that the stay on Slaughter's firing goes against precedent set by the case Humphrey's Executor v. United States, which states that a president can only remove an FTC commissioner for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office."

"The President cannot, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC Commissioner without any reason. To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humphrey's: It entails overriding rather than accepting Congress's judgment about agency design. The majority may be raring to take that action, as its grant of certiorari before judgment suggests. But until the deed is done, Humphrey's controls, and prevents the majority from giving the President the unlimited removal power Congress denied him," Kagan wrote.

Carrie Severino, president of the conservative advocacy group Judicial Crisis Network, said in an interview with the Examiner that the Supreme Court needs to make "a clearer decision" on Humphrey's, adding,"it's good to see the court will be considering that case on the merits."

Severino said, "Taking up the FTC challenge was smart, because if you don't directly confront it, it's going to continue to be a zombie case."

• Trump Seeks Supreme Court Order to Oust Fed's Cook
• Supreme Court to Hear Trump Tariffs Case on Nov. 5