Supreme Court Guts the Deep State

Peter St Onge

Jul 03, 2026

The Supreme Court just gutted one of the load bearing walls of the deep state, voting 6 to 3 to let Trump fire thousands of independent bureaucrats who effectively run the country with minimal oversight from the voters. 

Could we see the day when voters actually decide what happens to them?

Last week the Supreme Court decided the long-anticipated Trump v Slaughter case, which revisits a 90 year precedent called Humphrey’s Executor that insulated independent agencies from dismissal by the president.

This matters because independent agencies control some of the most important policy levers in the federal government, including the FTC that was at issue in Slaughter, which can block corporate mergers.

The SEC, CFTC, and FDIC, which control financial markets and banking insurance, the FCC who controls free speech, FEC for elections, NLRB for unions. FERC for energy markets. EEOC for affirmative action; and USITC that controls much of trade policy.

That’s a substantial part of the federal government, all outside the control of the President. Meaning outside the control of voters, whose only influence is the president and Congress they elect. But with the Filibuster paralyzing Congress that boils down to only the President.

Slaughter put the ball back in voter’s hands.

The Progressive Deep State

So the background is socialist Progressives waged a century long jihad to take the government away from voters and turn it into a self-licking ice-cream cone that serves the Progressive revolution.

The landmark moment was the 1883 Pendleton Act that established an independent bureaucracy insulated from political -- hence voter -- control. The excuse was to fight corruption -- which of course is as strong as ever. And the result was voters became spectators while federal workers became an occupying army.

The Deep State was born.

And that Deep State consolidated into so-called independent boards starting with the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 that unconstitutionally regulated business, then took off in FDR’s socialist New Deal, with dozens of agencies created to rule the country without voters.

By 1946 this occupying army won the right to effectively write law in the Administrative Procedure Act, then wrangled itself near-immunity from being fired in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act.

Bringing us to today, where almost 90% of laws are written by bureaucrats, not by elected politicians. And, until last week, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Giving Power Back to Voters

Slaughter now joins a parade of recent decisions turning the tide, including Seila, Collins, and Loper Bright that give Presidents more control over bureaucrats while giving Congress a bigger role in actually writing the laws that, according to the Constitution, they alone are supposed to write.

There's miles to go:  On the very same day the Court stayed Trump’s firing of Fed member Lisa Cook -- allegedly on a technicality but possibly revealing a reluctance to let elected presidents control the unconstitutional Federal Reserve that all but controls the economy.

Meanwhile, while Loper and now Slaughter have dramatically reshuffled the cards, federal rulemaking, court deference, and federal worker protections remain stubborn and will need multiple decisions to root out.

What is Next?

In the near term Trump can purge independent agencies so they stop sabotaging his agenda, while agencies like FTC and SEC are likely to pull back on major regulatory pushes to keep their heads down.

But zooming out we could see major reductions in the regulatory tax on the economy that studies imply could double or quadruple wages -- Starbucks and dog-walkers would be making six figures.

And assuming the firing of Fed member Lisa Cook firing is refiled with the technicalities fixed, we could even see a Federal Reserve that actually answers to the people it’s abused for 113 years and counting.