Beltway Buzz, July 2, 2026

SCOTUS: FTC Removal Protections Are Unconstitutional. On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the provision of federal law limiting the president’s ability to remove commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” violated the United States Constitution’s separation of powers. The ruling was the result of former FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter’s legal challenge to her removal from the Commission by President Donald Trump in March 2025. Because “[t]he FTC unquestionably exercises executive power, and must therefore be controlled by the Chief Executive,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “It follows, then, that Slaughter served as the President’s subordinate at the FTC—and that the President was entitled to cut her tenure short.”

The decision will undoubtedly play a significant role in resolving ongoing legal challenges to the president’s ability to remove members from the National Labor Relations Board and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Ultimately, the Supreme Court’s Slaughter decision vests more power in the executive branch, with at least one result likely to be more dramatic policy swings with each new administration. Brian E. Hayes and Zachary V. Zagger have more on the decision.

SCOTUS Strikes Down Birthright Citizenship EO. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Executive Order (EO) 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” The EO stated that children born of persons unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States were not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and therefore not entitled to U.S. citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment and federal law. In other words, pursuant to the EO, a child born in the United States who did not have at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident would not qualify as a citizen by birth. The majority of the Court ruled that the executive contravened the Fourteenth Amendment, which focuses on the location of the individual’s birth and says nothing about the immigration status of the individual’s parents. (Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”). The majority wrote, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today.” Nicole Fink and Philip K. Sholts have the details.

President Trump Nominates Acting Labor Secretary to Officially Lead DOL. President Trump will nominate Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling to take the reins as U.S. secretary of labor. Sonderling has served as acting labor secretary since April 2026, when Lori Chavez DeRemer, the immediate past labor secretary, resigned. Sonderling is well-versed in many of the employment issues facing employers today, having previously served as an acting wage and hour administrator at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and as an EEOC commissioner.

EEOC Rescinds Affirmative Action Guidelines. The EEOC voted this week to rescind its interpretive guidelines titled “Affirmative Action Appropriate Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as Amended.” The Commission, which forecasted this action last month, did not solicit public feedback on the matter. According to an EEOC press release, the guidelines “ran afoul of the text of Title VII and contradicted Supreme Court case law that has developed over the four decades since the Affirmative Action Guidelines were issued.” Of course, federal contractors remain obligated to prepare affirmative action plans as required by Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. These federal statutes remain in effect, notwithstanding the EEOC’s rescission of its affirmative action guidelines or President Trump’s issuance of EO 14173 in January 2025.

America 250. In observance of the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, here are some fun facts to get you in the patriotic spirit:

• Independence Day is really July 2, 1776. This was the day the Continental Congress passed a resolution declaring the colonies’ independence from Great Britain. When the Congress subsequently felt the need to explain the vote to the public, the Declaration of Independence was drafted and adopted two days later, on July 4, 1776.
• The only two signatories to the Declaration of Independence who later became president of the United States—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (respectively, the nation’s second and third presidents)—both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
• Five years after Adams and Jefferson passed, James Monroe, who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825, died on July 4, 1831.
• Calvin Coolidge, who served as the United States’ thirtieth president from 1923 to 1929, was born on July 4, 1872—the only U.S. president to share a birthday with the United States.
• Six people signed both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution: Benjamin Franklin, George Read (one of Delaware’s first U.S. senators), Roger Sherman (who later represented Connecticut for a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, followed by two years in the U.S. Senate), Robert Morris (the “Financier of the Revolution” and one of Pennsylvania’s first U.S. senators), George Clymer (an early abolitionist from Pennsylvania), and James Wilson (one of the first justices appointed to the Supreme Court by President George Washington). Thomas Jefferson and John Adams signed the Declaration of Independence, but did not sign the Constitution, as they were overseas serving as ministers to France and Great Britain, respectively.

Although Massachusetts became the first state to officially recognize the Fourth of July as a holiday in 1781, July 4 did not become a federal holiday until 1870. Even then, the Fourth remained an unpaid holiday for federal employees until 1938.

The Buzz will return to its regularly scheduled programming on Friday, July 10, 2026.