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WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

Are 'Independent’ Agencies Unconstitutional? Supreme Court Justices Debate

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

42.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The High Court hears a major case on whether President Trump can fire members of the Federal Trade Commission, despite a 1935 precedent (Humphrey's Executor) that says otherwise. Plus, in a second case this week, Republicans challenge limits on coordinated campaign spending by candidates and political parties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Deloitte expects the space economy to reach $2 trillion by 2035.

0:04.5

Jason Gerzattis, CEO of Deloitte U.S., says that growth is fueled by data and its application for businesses across industries.

0:11.3

What's exciting is that the data and the analytic and the commercial application of the data will move to be more mainstream.

0:18.7

It will be something that organizations of any size can benefit from

0:22.2

the data that's being emitted from space that could be pertinent to their operation.

0:25.5

Visit Deloitte.com to learn how the space economy is creating new opportunities.

0:32.9

From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

0:40.2

The Supreme Court takes up two big cases as President Trump challenges the autonomy of so-called independent agencies,

0:46.7

and as a Republican Senate campaign arm tries to invalidate legal limits on coordinated election

0:53.3

spending. Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall

0:56.9

Street Journal. We're joined today by my colleagues on the editorial page, columnists Kim Strassel,

1:03.4

and Alicia Finley. Any fifth-grade civic students can explain that the United States government

1:08.8

has three branches, the legislative, that's Congress,

1:12.7

the executive led by the president, and the judiciary. But now Washington these days is full of so-called

1:18.2

independent agencies. So where do they fit in, or is that even constitutional? That's the question

1:24.6

of the Supreme Court on Monday in a case involving the Federal Trade Commission.

1:29.8

The law that created the FTC in 1914 says that its members cannot be fired by the president

1:36.8

except in case of malfeasance or other bad behavior.

1:41.1

The Supreme Court upheld that idea in a 1935 case called Humphrey's executor. But President

1:47.9

Trump argues that he's in charge of the executive branch and he has the right to fire commissioners

1:53.1

at will if he dislikes their policies or for no reason at all. Let's listen to the piece of

1:58.4

the oral argument today. This is Solicitor General John Sauer,

...

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