The U.S. Supreme Court began its new term this week, setting the stage for a case that could expand presidential power by overruling a longstanding precedent on executive agency independence. Chief Justice John Roberts has laid groundwork for this through prior rulings advancing the unitary executive theory. The development aligns with objectives in Project 2025, a plan associated with former President Donald Trump.
Chief Justice John Roberts has spent years promoting the unitary executive theory, which envisions a president with broad authority to fire executive branch officials at will. This approach underpins Project 2025, a blueprint that Trump distanced himself from during his 2024 campaign but which calls for the Supreme Court to overrule Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. That 1935 case upheld certain independent agencies whose directors cannot be removed without cause, such as inefficiency or malfeasance.
The Court, which opened its term on October 7, 2025, will hear arguments later this session on a challenge to this precedent. Roberts' prior decisions have paved the way. In 2020's Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he wrote that Congress lacked authority to shield the CFPB director from at-will removal, deeming it a violation of separation of powers, though he stopped short of overturning Humphrey’s Executor.
More recently, in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, Roberts invalidated decades of practice allowing the SEC to impose civil penalties for securities fraud through administrative proceedings. He ruled such cases must go to federal court with juries, complicating enforcement and raising costs for the agency. This ruling disrupts more than 200 statutes empowering dozens of agencies to handle civil penalties.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented sharply, accusing the majority of abandoning neutrality. "Throughout our Nation’s history, Congress has authorized agency adjudicators to find violations of statutory obligations and award civil penalties to the Government as an injured sovereign," she wrote. "The majority today upends longstanding precedent... Because the Court fails to act as a neutral umpire when it rewrites established rules in the manner it does today, I respectfully dissent."
These moves, influenced by figures like Leonard Leo, aim to curb administrative agencies while bolstering presidential control, ultimately safeguarding corporate interests over regulatory protections for workers and investors. The Court's Republican majority, solidified by Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 appointment replacing Anthony Kennedy, ensures momentum for this agenda, regardless of the presidency.