Washington, D.C. – A group of public servants who had been unlawfully removed from the boards of independent federal agencies by President Trump and a number of scholars who focus on the study of independent agencies and the separation of powers between the president and Congress joined today in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in Trump v. Slaughter – a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could determine if the president is able to fire board members of independent agencies without cause, or if the judicial branch is able to prevent the president from changing independent agencies’ leadership based on political whims. 

Those signing the friend-of-the-court brief include Samuel Bagenstos, the Frank G. Millard Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and the Arlene Susan Kohn Professor of Social Policy at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; unlawfully removed National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chair Alvin Brown; Assistant Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University John Dearborn; unlawfully removed Federal Labor Relations Authority board member Susan Tsui Grundmann; Justin Levitt, a nationally recognized scholar of constitutional law, administrative law, and the law of democracy at LMU Loyola Law School; Donald Moynihan, the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan; unlawfully removed Surface Transportation Board member Robert Primus; William G. Resh, professor and chair of the Department of Public Management and Policy at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies; and Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson University Law School teaching courses in Election Law, the First Amendment, Corporate Governance, Business Entities, and Constitutional Law. The coalition is represented by Democracy Forward in the matter. Brown and Primus have ongoing litigation challenging their removals and are separately represented by Democracy Forward. 

“President Trump’s efforts to seize power from Congress is yet another alarming and unlawful step in his efforts to create an autocracy. This case has far reaching implications about the power of the Executive,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “This brief presents the views and expertise of people who know, from both academic and professional experience, that agency independence protects public safety, the country’s infrastructure, integrity of government, and economic stability. Their perspective should be invaluable to the Court as it considers whether to reaffirm or overrule longstanding precedent permitting Congress to limit the President’s power to remove heads of independent agencies without cause. Our team is honored to represent former civil servants and scholars to share important information with the Court.” 

The Democracy Forward legal team working on the matter includes Catherine M.A. Carroll, Bradley Girard, Jon Greenbaum, Paul R.Q. Wolfson, Elena Goldstein, and Skye Perryman. 

Read the full friend-of-the-court brief here.

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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.