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Supreme Court Rewrites Federal Power Balance, Leaving Congress the Weakest Branch

7/2/2026

The Supreme Court closed its just-completed term having systematically stripped Congress of authority and concentrated power in two institutions: the White House and the court itself.

Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck summarized the term's real headline as "Supreme Court rules for itself, 6–3" — a realignment now governing how federal regulators are controlled, how $4 billion in congressionally-appropriated foreign aid gets withheld, and who sets the rules over markets, employment, and voting rights.

FTC Independence Falls; Federal Reserve Gets a Carve-Out In Trump v.

Slaughter, the court's most consequential regulatory ruling, justices preserved the Federal Trade Commission's statutory powers while dismantling the structural independence Congress built around it.

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