{"id":2519098,"date":"2025-12-09T08:28:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gorsuch-exposes-illogical-defense-of-unchecked-bureaucracy\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T08:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:31:13","slug":"gorsuch-exposes-illogical-defense-of-unchecked-bureaucracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gorsuch-exposes-illogical-defense-of-unchecked-bureaucracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorsuch Exposes Illogical Defense Of Unchecked Bureaucracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgorsuch-exposes-illogical-defense-of-unchecked-bureaucracy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2519098&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>During a recent Supreme Court oral argument in *Trump v. Slaughter*, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch challenged the lawyer representing rebecca Slaughter, a former Federal Trade commission (FTC) commissioner fired by President Trump. The case questions the president&#8217;s authority to remove members of self-reliant federal agencies and whether to uphold or overturn the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sotomayor-claims-trump-doj-is-asking-supreme-court-to-destroy-the-structure-of-government-in-ftc-firing-case\/\" title=\"Sotomayor claims Trump DOJ is asking ... to &#039;destroy the structure of ...&#039; in ... firing ...\">longstanding 1935 precedent set<\/a> by *Humphrey&#8217;s Executor v. U.S.*. Gorsuch pressed Slaughter&#8217;s attorney, Amit Agarwal, on whether the president is constitutionally required to &#8220;faithfully execute all the laws,&#8221; exposing inconsistencies in Agarwal&#8217;s responses about statutory limitations on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/theres-no-such-thing-as-independent-and-apolitical-bureaucrats\/\" title=\"There&#039;s No Such Thing As &#039;Independent&#039; And Apolitical Bureaucrats\">presidential removal powers<\/a>. Gorsuch suggested that Agarwal&#8217;s arguments implicitly acknowledge that *Humphrey&#8217;s Executor* might be misguided,as it implies a quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial &#8220;fourth branch&#8221; of government. Agarwal defended his position citing recent Supreme Court decisions and historic cases but struggled under Gorsuch&#8217;s direct questioning about the scope and logic of presidential authority. The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >case raises critical constitutional questions<\/a> about executive power, agency independence, and the balance of powers within the federal government.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES &mdash; Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch dismantled a lawyer&rsquo;s illogical arguments about a president&rsquo;s executive power during a high-stakes Supreme Court hearing on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>The moment came during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/public-affairs-event\/supreme-court-hears-case-on-legality-of-trump-removing-ftc-commissioner\/669488\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oral arguments<\/a> for <em>Trump v. Slaughter<\/em>, a case centered around President Trump&rsquo;s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat member of the Federal Trade Commission. As The Federalist previously <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/30\/the-federalists-guide-to-the-2025-supreme-court-term\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, the high court will weigh the constitutionality of statutory limitations on a president&rsquo;s ability to remove members of so-called &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-british-deep-state-deposed-pm-liz-truss-after-44-days\/\" title=\"The British Deep State Deposed PM Liz Truss After 44 Days\">independent agencies&#038;rdquo<\/a>; and whether to overturn <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/03\/vital-scotus-case-tests-the-presidents-absolute-authority-to-remove-executive-branch-officials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">longstanding precedent<\/a> established in its 1935 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1900-1940\/295us602\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Humphrey&rsquo;s Executor v. U.S.<\/a><\/em>  decision. <\/p>\n<p>During his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/oral_arguments\/argument_transcripts\/2025\/25-332_p8k0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">questioning<\/a> of Slaughter&rsquo;s counsel, Amit Agarwal, Gorsuch sought to get clarity on the defendant&rsquo;s arguments surrounding a president&rsquo;s &ldquo;conclusive and preclusive power[s].&rdquo; In a straightforward manner, the Trump appointee asked Agarwal, &ldquo;You agree, I assume, the president is vested with all the executive power?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While Agarwal initially signaled his agreement with Gorsuch, he seemingly backtracked on fully standing behind his answer in a subsequent back and forth with the justice:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Gorsuch: You agree that [a president] has a duty to faithfully execute all the laws?<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: Civil and criminal?<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: We &hellip; agree that the Constitution imposes &hellip; on the president a duty to faithfully execute the laws, absolutely.<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: All the laws?<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: Well &hellip;<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: All &mdash; are there some laws he doesn&rsquo;t have to? That would be news to our friends across the street.<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/constitution\/articles\/2\/essays\/98\/take-care-clause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">take care clause<\/a> is a duty, and it is also a power, but the text of the clause does not provide that the president must have at-will presidential &mdash; <\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: I didn&rsquo;t ask that. This is: does he have a duty to faithfully execute all the laws? &hellip; Yes or no?<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: I would say no, in the sense &mdash; <\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: No?<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal: &mdash; in the sense &hellip; Let me &hellip;  &mdash; there&rsquo;s two different questions, and I want to make sure that I&rsquo;m answering the questions.<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: The question is: does the President have a duty to faithfully execute all the laws? The answer is &lsquo;no,&rsquo; why?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Seemingly reeling from the justice&rsquo;s questions, Agarwal plainly said that a president &ldquo;can&rsquo;t break the law for sure.&rdquo; He then apparently attempted to wiggle out of the tough probing by raising the question of whether a president must &ldquo;be vested with statutory authority to actually enforce, directly enforce&rdquo; the law but was cut off by Gorsuch, who noted, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not asking whether he has to bring the indictment &mdash; I&rsquo;m asking whether he has a duty to faithfully execute the laws.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think the president does not, under both history and tradition &hellip; have plenary power &hellip; of supervision, but in the case of the FTC, he does have some power of supervision &hellip; if there&rsquo;s a demonstrable, palpable violation of law, the president could absolutely fire a commissioner of the FTC under the plain language of the statute,&rdquo; Agarwal said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So, the answer is &lsquo;no,&rsquo; I guess,&rdquo; Gorsuch surmised.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[RELATED:[RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/12\/08\/justice-jackson-downplays-unelected-experts-running-the-executive-without-presidential-oversight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Justice Jackson Downplays Unelected &lsquo;Experts&rsquo; Running The Executive Without Presidential Oversight<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Seemingly not convinced by Agarwal&rsquo;s arguments, Gorsuch attempted to further pin down how far Slaughter&rsquo;s attorney believes these statutory limitations on the president&rsquo;s removal authority should go under his theory. After a short exchange on presidential authority, the Trump appointee &ldquo;put [his] cards on the table&rdquo; and suggested that Agarwal&rsquo;s illogical arguments appear to stem from an unspoken belief that <em>Humphrey&rsquo;s Executor<\/em> &ldquo;was poorly reasoned.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m wondering &hellip; &mdash; I&rsquo;ll put my cards on the table &mdash; maybe it&rsquo;s a recognition that <em>Humphrey&rsquo;s Executor<\/em> was poorly reasoned and that there is no such thing in our constitutional order as a fourth branch of government that&rsquo;s quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative. Maybe you&rsquo;re trying to back-fill it with a better new theory that itself recognizes that we&rsquo;ve got a problem,&rdquo; Gorsuch said.<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal claimed that his theory is based on the Supreme Court&rsquo;s 2024 presidential immunity decision (<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2023\/23-939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trump v. U.S.<\/a><\/em>) and &ldquo;goes all the way back to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1789-1850\/5us137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marbury v. Madison<\/a><\/em>,&rdquo; which he said, &ldquo;does not use the term[s] &lsquo;conclusive&rsquo; and &lsquo;preclusive.&#8217;&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And neither does <em>Humphrey&rsquo;s<\/em>,&rdquo; Gorsuch interjected. &ldquo;It uses &lsquo;quasi&rsquo; things.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Following a further explanation by Agarwal on his theory, Gorsuch questioned what would happen if SCOTUS were to take up his theory &ldquo;to back-fill <em>Humphrey&rsquo;s<\/em> and go down this road.&rdquo; He specifically probed about how they would go about deciding &ldquo;what [presidential] powers are going to fall in and what are going to fall out&rdquo; and if the court would &ldquo;have just as much litigation over that as anything else [it] might do in this case.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Agarwal expressed doubt that would happen, arguing that &ldquo;independent agencies&rdquo; have been around &ldquo;for a long time,&rdquo; and that, &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had any precedent ever striking them down.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-american-freedom-convoy-set-to-launch-on-march-1\/\" title=\"Exclusive: \u2018American Freedom Convoy\u2019 Set To Launch On March 1\">state content writer<\/a> for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice Gorsuch challenges lawyer&#8217;s flawed claims on executive power<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2519099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Neil-Gorsuch.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[15016,12186,37840,68480,36218],"class_list":["post-2519098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-bureaucracy","tag-gorsuch","tag-government-oversight","tag-judicial-critique","tag-legal-analysis"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Neil-Gorsuch.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519102,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519098\/revisions\/2519102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2519099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}