In this episode, legal scholars Michael Ramsey and Jed Shugerman the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, which address the president’s authority to remove members of the executive branch. They trace the history of presidential removal power from the founding era through the Court’s 1935 landmark Humphrey’s Executor decision to the present day and explore what Slaughter and Cook may mean for the future of executive power. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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This episode was produced and mixed by Bill Pollock. With production support from Charles Sahm. Research was provided by Anna Salvatore and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Michael Ramsey is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. He clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ramsey co-edited the book International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change and has authored numerous law review articles on the original meaning of various provisions of Article II of the Constitution. He is also a regular contributor to The Originalism Blog.
Jed Shugerman is the Professor and Henry Elwood Warren Scholar at Boston University School of Law. He is the author of several recent law review articles about the original public meaning of Article II—many of which were cited in Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in Slaughter. Shugerman is the author of numerous amici briefs, including an originalist defense of birthright citizenship that was cited in Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in Trump v. Barbara, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, and numerous other publications. He is working on two books about the history of executive power and prosecution in America.
Thomas Donnellyis lead scholar at the National Constitution Center. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Additional Resources
- Trump v. Cook (2026)
- Trump v. Slaughter (2026)
- Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935)
- “Trump v. Slaughter: Another Win for Justice Scalia,” Michael Ramsey, The Originalism Blog, June 30, 2026
- Brief Amicus Curiae of Professor Jed Shugerman in Trump v. Slaughter
- “Supreme Court allows Trump to fire FTC member but not Fed director,” National Constitution Center’s Constitution Daily
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