In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to put independent agencies under presidential control. So what could go wrong? A helluva lot. As my colleague Pema Levy warns:
Trump’s second term has highlighted both why compromising independence is harmful—and how current independence is often less than Congress initially hoped. For example, the CFTC, where the president has left four of five commissioner spots empty, has apparently stopped investigating cryptocurrency scams, and is refusing to scrutinize betting sites Kalshi and Polymarket, two fraud-fueled industries that have the president’s backing. But Trump’s return to power has also underscored how easy it is to compromise agencies without even a technical promise of independence. Take the country’s health regulators, where it’s all too clear that personal whim, rather than scientific evidence, is guiding new vaccine policies.
For a model of what the Roberts court apparently wants, look no further than Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, who has effectively transformed the FCC into a Trumpian attack dog to go after the president's perceived enemies and get others to bend to Trump's will. Now apply that broadly to everything from mergers to choking hazards and energy prices.
Again, what could go wrong?
—Inae Oh
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