Supreme Court announces it will hear several major cases in December

The Supreme Court announced on Friday afternoon that it will hear oral arguments on Dec. 8 in the battle over the president’s power to remove the heads of independent federal agencies created by Congress. The case, Trump v. Slaughter, is one of eight cases scheduled for oral argument during the court’s December argument calendar, which runs from Dec. 1-3 and again from Dec. 8-10. Other high-profile cases now slated for argument in December include National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission and First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin.

The dispute over presidential power began in March, when Rebecca Slaughter received an email notifying her that she had been removed from her position as one of the five members of the Federal Trade Commission. Under federal law, commissioners can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” but the email did not indicate that she had been fired for one of these reasons.

Federal courts in Washington, D.C., ordered the Trump administration to reinstate Slaughter. They pointed to the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which held that Congress can create independent, multi-member regulatory agencies, like the FTC, whose members can only be removed “for cause.”

The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court in early September, seeking permission to fire Slaughter while the litigation continued. By a vote of 6-3, the justices agreed to put the lower court’s order requiring Slaughter’s reinstatement on hold.

In National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the justices will decide whether to overrule a 2001 decision that upheld federal limits on coordinated campaign expenditures, which bar political parties from spending money on campaign advertising with input from political candidates. The case was brought by (among others) then-Sen. J.D. Vance, contending that the federal law at the center of the case violates the First Amendment.

The December argument schedule

Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment (Dec. 1) – Whether an internet service provider can be held liable for “materially contributing to copyright infringement” when it knew that some of its users were using their internet accounts to infringe copyrights but did not cut off their access.

Urias-Orellana v. Bondi (Dec. 1) – How much deference courts of appeals should give to a determination by the Board of Immigration Appeals that an individual seeking asylum has not been persecuted.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin (Dec. 2) – Whether a federal court has the power to rule on a group’s claim that a state government’s demand for information about its fundraising practices discouraged it from exercising its First Amendment rights, or whether the group must instead litigate that claim in state proceedings.

Olivier v. City of Brandon (Dec. 3) – Whether an evangelical Christian can bring a lawsuit to block the enforcement of a Mississippi city’s ordinance regulating protests and demonstrations around the city’s amphitheater.

Trump v. Slaughter (Dec. 8) – Whether the federal law limiting the president’s power to remove members of the Federal Trade Commission violates the separation of powers between the branches of government and, if so, whether to overrule Humphrey’s Executor.

National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission (Dec. 9) – Whether a federal law limiting coordinated party expenditures violates the First Amendment.

Hamm v. Smith (Dec. 10) – Whether and how courts may consider the cumulative effect of multiple IQ scores in assessing a claim that a defendant in a death penalty case is intellectually disabled and therefore cannot be executed.

FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund (Dec. 10) – Whether Congress created a right for private individuals and entities to bring a lawsuit against investment funds.