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UVA Health University Medical Center taps interim CEO


SUMMARY:

UVA Health announced on Tuesday that it has appointed longtime executive Teresa L. Edwards to serve as interim CEO of its University Medical Center.

Based in , the University Medical Center is UVA Health’s health system’s flagship teaching , featuring about 700 beds, a Level I trauma center, a Level IV NICU, a NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. It has more than 1,350 affiliated faculty members.

Edwards takes the reins from previous CEO Wendy Horton, who recently departed the health system to become a senior vice president and president of adult care services at UCSF Health.

In recent months, UVA Health has undergone significant executive turnover. Horton’s departure follows earlier exits of former UVA Health CEO Dr. K. Craig Kent and medical school and UVA Health chief health affairs officer Dr. Melina Kibbe. The departures came amid staff tensions, a 2024 no-confidence vote against Kent and Kibbe and criticism over leadership culture and spending.

Edwards begins her new role on Sept. 15.

“We are delighted to welcome Teresa Edwards to our organization,” said Mitchell Rosner, interim executive vice president for health affairs at the in a statement. “Terrie brings her energy, expertise and experience to UVA Health and will lead a team dedicated to our community and to the highest quality of patient care and safety.”

Edwards spent more than 16 years at Health in various roles, most recently as senior vice president and regional president of its eastern division. In that role, she oversaw five hospitals, strengthening their supply chain, implemented the division’s first regional market plan, and developed a replacement medical campus in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

She was interim president for acute and post-acute care delivery across the Sentara system between 2023 and 2024, corporate vice president for Sentara’s Peninsula Region from 2016 to 2020 and president of Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk from 2008 to 2016.

Before Sentara, Edwards was an executive vice president and administrator at Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center in Richmond.

Edwards has a master’s degree in health administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also founded her own company, Edwards Executive Compass, to provide executive coaching and consulting services.

“Serving as interim CEO of UVA Health’s University Medical Center is a hugely exciting opportunity,” Edwards said in a statement. “I look forward to working with all the team members to build on the exceptional patient care UVA Health already offers for patients across Virginia and beyond.”

The Charlottesville-based UVA Health system includes four hospitals across Charlottesville, Culpeper and Northern Virginia and the UVA School of Medicine, UVA School of Nursing, UVA Physicians Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. The health system has more than 1,000 inpatient beds, approximately 40,000 annual inpatient stays, more than 1 million annual outpatient encounters and more than 1,000 employed and independent physicians

During the most recent fiscal year, the university medical center discharged more than 32,000 inpatients and had more than 1 million outpatient visits.

 

US household income rose slightly last year, roughly matching 2019 level

Summary

  • : typical U.S. barely rose last year.
  • Median income essentially unchanged since its 2019 peak.
  • offset wage growth, eroding real gains for most families.
  • Wealthiest households saw strong inflation-adjusted income growth.
  • Middle- and lower-income households experienced little to no gains.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The income for the typical U.S. household barely rose last year and essentially matched its 2019 peak, the Census Bureau said Tuesday, a stark illustration of the impact that the pandemic inflation spike had on Americans’ finances.

The report also showed that the highest-earning households received healthy inflation-adjusted income increases, while middle- and lower-income households saw little gain.

Median household income, adjusted for inflation, in 2024 was $83,730, the Census Bureau said, a 1.3% increase from the previous year’s level of $82,690. The median is the midpoint between the highest- and lowest-income households, and helps filter out the impact of very high and very low incomes that can skew averages.

The figures help illustrate why many Americans have been dissatisfied with the economy since the pandemic, even as has been historically low: Median household incomes are essentially unchanged from five years earlier, the report showed. Median household income was $83,260 in 2019, the report said, and the slightly higher figure for 2024 is within the margin of error and therefore reflects little change from five years earlier, Census officials said.

That is a sharp contrast from the preceding five-year period, from 2014 to 2019, when median household income rose nearly 21%, according to Census data.

“It’s not hard to see why middle-class Americans are frustrated,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union. “The frozen job market, tariffs and Medicaid cuts are going to put even more of a squeeze in 2025 on middle and lower-income households.”

For richest 10% of households, incomes rose 4.2% to $251,000, while for the poorest one-tenth incomes increased just 2.2% to $19,900. A household is defined by Census as a family unit or an individual living alone or living with people who aren’t relatives.

The agency includes all sources of cash income, including , investment income, and payments from government programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance. It doesn’t include non-cash benefits, such as food aid — formerly known as food stamps — or tax credits, or the substantial stimulus payments made by the first in 2020 or the Biden administration in 2021 that significantly boosted Americans’ finances.

Wages and salaries for most Americans rose at a healthy clip as the economy emerged from the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, as businesses were desperate to find and keep employees. But with prices rising sharply as well, overall household income fell for three years after 2019, and rose in 2023 for the first time in four years.

The worst inflation spike in four decades in 2021 and 2022 soured most Americans on the economy, eroded sharp wage gains that occurred as employers desperately sought workers after the pandemic, and contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in last year’s election. Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, fell in 2024 to an annual average of 2.9%, down from an average of 8% two years earlier.

The results also varied by demographic group, with Asian and Hispanic households reporting solid income gains. The median inflation-adjusted income for Asians jumped 5.1% to $121,700, while for Hispanics it rose 5.5% to $70,950. White incomes barely rose and were $92,530 last year, while Black incomes dropped 3.3% to $56,020.

Earnings for women barely rose, while male earnings increased 3.7%, widening the gender wage gap for the second straight year after two decades of narrowing. Women on average now earn 80.9% of what men earn, down from 82.7% in 2023.

Liana Fox, an assistant division chief at Census, said the decline in women’s earnings relative to men’s could reflect some of the cooling in the job market after hiring had ramped up in the aftermath of the pandemic. The unemployment rate fell to a half-century low of 3.4% in 2023, then rose to 4.1% by the end of last year. Fox noted that the ratio of women’s income to men’s last year was similar to pre-pandemic levels.

Amanda Nothaft, director of data and analysis at the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions project, said the drop in the ratio could also reflect the departure of some higher-income women from the workforce. The proportion of women working or looking for work jumped to a record high after the pandemic but has since eased, in part as return-to-office mandates have reduced workplace flexibility.

The Census report also included data on poverty, which showed that the poverty rate fell modestly, to 10.6%, from 11% in 2023. The agency defines poverty for a family of four as income below $31,000.

Census also tracks what’s known as the supplemental poverty measure, which includes non-cash benefits such as food aid. That figure was unchanged last year, at 12.9%.

Wendy Chun-Hoon, president and executive director at the Center for Law and Social Policy, said that the expiration of the Biden administration’s child tax credit, as well as subsidies for child care and other aid, have made it harder to cut poverty, particularly among African-American households. Chun-Hoon was head of the ‘s Women’s Bureau during the Biden administration.

“Policy absolutely matters,” Chun-Hoon said. “Unless we make more permanent changes, any gains we see will be temporary.”

Kevin Corinth, deputy director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute, said there were some positive signs in the report. Median incomes for married couples jumped 5% to $128,700, he noted, and also rose for workers with only a high school diploma.

Youngkin, Senate Dems continue fight over university boards

SUMMARY:

  • Three state Senate Democrats say they’ll hold public hearings at three universities
  • In letter to VMI, GMU and U.Va. officials, senators advise boards to hire independent legal counsel
  • calls letter “bullying”

A group of Democratic leaders informed leaders at , the and the that they are planning to hold public hearings on their campuses about the schools’ governance.

The senators also advise the U.Va. and GMU rectors and VMI’s superintendent to “seek independent legal counsel from a firm of the board’s choosing without any input from the attorney general, who consistently chooses law firms with clear political connections, to review all actions taken during any period when proper requirements were not met.”

The letter from Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell, Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas and Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Mamie Locke informed the three university leaders of a Senate committee vote in August in which the Democratic majority rejected 14 appointees to the three universities’ boards. Although U.Va. and VMI still have enough confirmed board members for quorums, George Mason now has only six members, short of the eight required by state law for a quorum.

Addressing GMU Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson, U.Va. Rector Rachel W. Sheridan and VMI Superintendent David Furness, the senators wrote that the plans to conduct “public oversight hearings at each of your universities in order to take public input regarding your actions and governance decisions,” but did not provide timing or additional details.

In response to the letter, Youngkin blasted the three senators in a post on X Tuesday.

“Virginia’s progressive left elected officials are trying to paralyze the governing boards of Virginia’s colleges and universities by using despicable bullying and intimidation tactics,” the governor wrote. “Their goal is clear: They want to stack the boards with their liberal friends who will openly defy federal anti-discrimination laws, promote protests and put student safety at risk, drive up costs for Virginia families, and make it harder for qualified Virginia students to gain admission to our great colleges and universities. Our boards should not be treated this way, and they will not be intimidated as they continue to follow the law.”

However, the governor did not respond publicly to an allegation by the three senators in a second letter sent Tuesday to George Mason’s Stimson, a senior legal fellow at The who was elected rector last summer, in which they call for him to recuse himself from voting or discussing with the board GMU President Gregory Washington’s employment status or DEI initiatives at the university, or else resign.

The senators say that Stimson’s ties to Heritage, which issued a Sept. 2 report recommending federal defunding of universities that allegedly evade the ‘s DEI clampdown, including George Mason, represent a conflict of interest as rector. (In August, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had found GMU violated civil rights law by favoring minority candidates in hiring; the university is reportedly currently negotiating a resolution with federal officials.)

The group of senators also allege that this Heritage connection may have prompted the governor to back Stimson as rector last summer.

“The appearance of impropriety is compounded by the fact that your selection as rector reportedly occurred only after direct intervention by Gov. Youngkin, raising questions about whether your Heritage Foundation affiliation influenced that appointment,” the senators wrote.

The governor’s office referred to Youngkin’s statement on X when asked about this allegation and did not immediately respond to a follow-up email seeking clarification.

Stimson also did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Dollar Tree promotes exec to chief merchandising officer

Chesapeake-based discount announced Tuesday that , senior vice president of merchandising and marketing, will be promoted to effective April 2026.

Beebe will succeed , who will retire in the spring after 17 years at Dollar Tree. Beebe will join the company’s executive leadership team and partner closely with McNeely over the next eight months to ensure a smooth transition.

“I am honored to be named Dollar Tree’s incoming chief merchandising officer and grateful for the leadership team’s trust in me,” said Beebe in a statement. “Working alongside Rick during this transition is a privilege, and I look forward to building on the strong foundation he established. Together with our talented merchandising organization, we will continue to strengthen our assortment for customers and deliver results for the business.”

Beebe joined Dollar Tree in 2020 from Seattle-based Bartell Drugs, where he was executive vice president. He previously held senior merchandising roles at Jo-Ann Stores and Fred Meyer, a banner of The Kroger Company.

“With more than 20 years of merchandising leadership, Brent has already made a significant impact at Dollar Tree,” said CEO Mike Creedon in a statement. “He has led key initiatives that delivered strong results, strengthened collaboration across teams and enhanced our customer value proposition. As incoming chief merchandising officer, he will continue to drive our merchandising strategy forward.”

Beebe has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Oregon State University and previously served on the board of the Global Market Development Center and its education leadership council.

In July, Dollar Tree announced it completed the roughly $1 billion sale of its Family Dollar business segment to New York-based global asset management firm Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management, a New York-based investment firm.

Headquartered in , Dollar Tree operates more than 9,000 stores and 18 distribution centers across 48 states and five Canadian provinces, under the Dollar Tree and Dollar Tree Canada brands. The company employs about 150,000 people. The company reported net sales of $17.6 billion for its 2024 fiscal year, which ended Feb. 1.

Noninvasive Liver Cancer Treatment Now Available in Virginia; Transformational Milestone Reached in Evolution of Focused Ultrasound with $2.25B HistoSonics Acquisition

Virginians now have access to a new noninvasive liver cancer treatment. in is the first in the state to treat liver tumors with histotripsy, an incisionless technique using focused ultrasound to liquify target tissue without heat.

Histotripsy was invented by the late Charles A. Cain, PhD, Zhen Xu, PhD, and a team at the University of Michigan, with more than $30 million in funding from the US National Institutes of Health and organizations including the American Cancer Society, the Hartwell Foundation, and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

HistoSonics later commercialized the technology, developing the FDA-approved Edison Histotripsy system, now used at more than 50 U.S. medical centers for liver treatment. It is currently also in clinical trials for kidney, prostate, and pancreatic tumors.

The company also recently executed a majority stake acquisition valuing the company at $2.25 billion, signifying the most significant milestone to date in the evolution of focused ultrasound as a transformative treatment for a wide range of life-threatening and disabling conditions.

“The arrival of histotripsy in Virginia is a pivotal step forward for liver cancer care,” said Neal F. Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. “HistoSonics represents the North Star—commercially validating the potential of focused ultrasound and paving the way for the success of every other stakeholder in the ecosystem.”

 

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$1.64B CACI defense contract paused after Accenture protest


SUMMARY:

Following a protest by , the Government Accountability Office has paused a $1.64 billion defense contract awarded to -based government contractor .

On Aug. 11, the Department of Defense — which President Trump recently rebranded as the Department of War by executive order, pending congressional authorization for a formal name change — announced that the (USTRANSCOM) awarded CACI an up to 10-year contract to provide technical support services for the Joint Transportation Management System (JTMS) at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. The command provides the rebranded Department of War with transport of people and cargo via air, land and sea.

National Defense magazine reported in 2024 that the JTMS aims to unify hundreds of fragmented transportation and financial systems across the department. According to the command’s website, the JTMS is a platform that integrates end-to-end transportation and financial processes for improved visibility, collaboration and auditability.

The Department of War website says that CACI was supposed to begin work on the contract on Aug. 12. However, the GAO confirmed that the contract was paused after Accenture filed its protest on Aug. 27.

The office must make a decision resolving the protest by Dec. 5.

Edward Goldstein, managing associate general counsel for procurement law with the GAO, said that when a protest is filed with the office within 10 days of the contract award, or within five days of a required debriefing, by statute, the procuring agency is required to automatically stay performance of the contract while the office resolves the protest. This is done to ensure that the protesting company can obtain relief if the protest is found to have merit.

“Here, it appears that the protest was filed in a timely manner to receive an automatic stay of contract performance,” Goldstein said in a statement. “While an agency can decide not to stay performance if it makes a finding that performance is necessary to meet an urgent and compelling need or because continuing performance would be in the best interest of the government, the agency has not done so in this case.”

Accenture argued that USTRANSCOM failed to conduct a reasonable price risk assessment in accordance with procurement regulation and the terms of the RFP. As a result, the company believes the agency overlooked the significant risks posed by CACI’s proposed pricing.

Accenture also argued that the agency failed to conduct meaningful discussions with it and unreasonably evaluated Accenture’s and CACI’s nonprice proposals.

Additionally, Accenture asserted that CACI’s team has unmitigable actual and potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) stemming from its performance of a Joint Financial Operations and System Support contract for USTRANSCOM.

Finally, Accenture maintains that the command conducted a materially defective best-value tradeoff analysis, leading to an unreasonable selection decision.

Neither Accenture or CACI immediately responded to requests for comment.

A request for proposals — posted in June 2024 on Sam.gov and updated in July of that same year — says the JTMS contract involves reengineering business processes, performing data interface and integration services, implementing a single integrated system and leveraging commercial software to conduct transportation, financial and logistical operations.

Founded in 1962, CACI serves intelligence and defense agencies. It has more than 25,000 employees and reported $7.66 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue.

Accenture Federal Services is an -based subsidiary of Fortune Global 500 firm Accenture that serves U.S. federal government clients. Accenture has a 770,000-person global workforce. The company’s fiscal 2024 revenue was $64.9 billion.

Nathan Trotter plans $65M tin processing plant in Southern Virginia


SUMMARY:

  • is investing $65 million in Henry County
  • facility expected to create 118 jobs
  • Site at Patriot Centre Industrial Park was selected for facility

Nathan Trotter, a Pennsylvania-based supplier and recycler of tin and tin alloy products, plans to invest $65 million in a Henry County tin processing operation that’s expected to create 118 jobs, announced in Tuesday.

The 115,000-square-foot Tin Ridge processing facility is slated for development on 44 acres at the Patriot Centre Industrial Park, north of Martinsville. The facility is expected to be in operation by the end of 2026, a Nathan Trotter spokesperson said. 

Tin is included on a 2022 list from the U.S. Secretary of the Interior of mineral commodities critical to the and national security. The metal is used in solder to enable electrical connections for electrical components, making it essential for products such as smartphones and electric vehicles as well as systems and aerospace technologies.

“Our new state-of-the-art tin processing facility will play an important and historic role in strengthening our nation’s fragile tin supply chain, as global competition and demand for reaches extraordinary levels,” Tyler Morris, a vice president and partner at Nathan Trotter, said in a news release.

The Henry County facility will be capable of refining volumes of both tin concentrate and scrap tin.

Family-owned and operated since 1789, Nathan Trotter has four tin refining and finishing plants in Pennsylvania.

In September, the newly rebranded U.S. Department of War awarded Nathan Trotter $19 million as part of the Defense Production Act Investment (DPAI) program to establish a domestic facility to increase capacity for the smelting, refining and recycling of tin. That money is part of the $65 million investment, according to a spokesperson for Nathan Trotter.

For the facility in Henry County, the Partnership worked with Henry County and the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. to secure the project for Virginia.

Gov. Youngkin approved a $1.5 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund for the project. Nathan Trotter will also receive assistance through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides services and funding to support recruitment and training for companies creating new jobs

“Nathan Trotter’s historic investment in Henry County only strengthens our national defense supply chain while also creating new, high-quality jobs and career opportunities in for the people of ,” Youngkin said in the release.

Editor’s note: this story has been updated

New data shows the US job market was much weaker than thought in 2024, and this year as well

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation’s economy.

Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported from April 2024 through March, the reported Tuesday.

The department issues the so-called benchmark revisions every year. They are intended to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. The numbers issued Tuesday are preliminary. Final revisions will come out in February 2026.

The revision showed that leisure and hospitality firms — including hotels and restaurants — added 176,000 fewer jobs than originally reported, professional and business services companies 158,000 fewer and retailers 126,000 fewer.

The report comes after the department reported Friday that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, adding to fears that ‘s erratic economic policies, including massive and unpredictable taxes on imports, have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire.

Last year, the benchmark revisions showed 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March 2024. Then-presidential candidate Trump declared the numbers had been rigged to conceal economic weakness and help Democrats in the 2024 election. However, he did not explain why the government would release the revised numbers two and a half months before voters went to the polls.

The revisions will likely increase pressure on the to cut at its meeting later this month to give the economy a boost.

Stocks hang near their records as hopes for rate cuts underpin markets

Summary

  • S&P 500 up 0.1%, just below last week’s record
  • Dow gained 18 points; rose 0.2%
  • steady after recent sharp declines
  • Markets betting on Fed’s first rate cut of the year
  • Decision expected at next week’s Fed meeting

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting near their record levels as expectations for cuts to continue to support financial markets. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% in early trading Tuesday and was just below its all-time high set last week. The Industrial Average inched up 18 points, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.2%, coming off its own record. Treasury yields were holding steadier in the bond market following their sharp slide during recent weeks, when expectations cemented that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates for the first time this year at its next meeting in a week.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street inched higher early Tuesday ahead of a government data revision that economists expect will reveal that the U.S. was sputtering well before  rolled out tariffs on the nation’s trading partners this spring.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq each ticked up 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the S&P 500 were unchanged.

Later Tuesday, the U.S. government will release preliminary revisions for job growth numbers reported for the 12 months through March of this year. Analysts are forecasting that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will revise job gains for that period down by as much as 900,000. If the figures are revised sharply lower, it could halve the job growth that had been thought to have occurred.

“That would mean that private-sector employment actually shrank, on average, in the past three months and that job creation earlier in the year was weaker than currently reported,” said Fed Gov. Christopher Waller, two weeks ago at the Economic Club of Miami.

Waller, a candidate to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, said then that he expected a downward revision of 60,000 per month.

There has been mounting evidence that uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs has kept business from hiring as actively as they had been when the U.S. rapidly rebounded from the COVID-19 recession. The is creating fewer than 75,000 jobs a month so far this year, less than half the 2024 average of 168,000 and not even a quarter of the 400,000 jobs added monthly in the hiring boom of 2021-2023.

When the put out a disappointing July jobs report that also included downward revisions for previous months, an enraged Trump responded by firing the BLS economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.

While still remains above the Fed’s 2% target, most economists think the central bank will cut its benchmark lending rate at its meeting next week to help support the flagging U.S. labor market.

Reports on inflation will follow on Wednesday and Thursday.

Also Tuesday, Apple will unveil the next line-up of iPhones amid a global trade war that’s added a potential price increase to the company’s marquee product. Apple shares were unchanged before the opening bell Tuesday.

Shares of Fox Corp. tumbled 4.7% in premarket after Rupert Murdoch’s family said they’ve reached a deal on control of the 94-year-old mogul’s media empire after his death. The agreement ensures that there will be no change in direction at Fox News, the most popular network for President Donald Trump and conservatives.

The deal creates a trust establishing control of the Fox Corp. for Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s chosen heir who has been running Fox in recent years, along with his younger sisters, Grace and Chloe.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3%, the German DAX fell 0.5% and Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2%.

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 erased earlier gains to finish 0.4% lower at 43,459.29, as political uncertainty continued after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said over the weekend that he planned to step down. Who will replace him is still uncertain and may take weeks to decide. The benchmark had momentarily surpassed the 44,000 mark.

Anticipation over one of the likely candidates, Sanae Takaichi, a hawkish legislator, sent issues higher in Tokyo trading. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose 0.3%, IHI added 1.0% and Kawasaki Heavy 0.4%. Veteran ruling party legislator Toshimitsu Motegi has indicated he wants to run, and other expected contenders include Farm Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi. All are members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which will need coalition partners to stay in power.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6% to 8,793.60. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.3% to 3,260.05. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.2% to 25,938.13, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% to 3,807.29. The mixed trading followed a stronger opening in Asia.

“Asian markets opened Tuesday with momentum, riding Wall Street’s conviction that Fed cuts are no longer a question of if but how many. Nearly three reductions are now being priced before year-end. That expectation is washing through global markets like a spring tide,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

Chief justice lets Trump remove member of Federal Trade Commission for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday let remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by Supreme Court.

Trump first moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but she sued and lower courts ordered her reinstated because the law allows commissioners to be removed only for problems like misconduct or neglect of duty.

Roberts halted those decisions in a brief order, responding to an appeal from the on the court’s emergency docket.

The Justice Department has argued that the FTC and other executive branch agencies are under Trump’s control and the president is free to remove commissioners without cause.

Slaughter’s lawsuit over her firing will keep playing out, as Roberts asked her lawyers to respond to the Trump administration’s arguments by next week.

The court has previously allowed the firings of several other board members of independent agencies. It has suggested, however, that his power to fire has limitations at the , a prospect that could soon be tested with the case of Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.

Monday’s order is the latest sign that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has effectively abandoned a 90-year-old high court precedent that protected some federal agencies from arbitrary presidential action.

In the 1935 decision known as Humphrey’s Executor, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.

The decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination, the airwaves and much else. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue the modern administrative state gets the Constitution all wrong because such agencies should answer to the president.

The agency at the center of the case was also the FTC, a point cited by lower-court judges in the lawsuit filed by Slaughter. She has ping-ponged in and out of the job as the case worked its way through the courts.

The FTC is a regulator created by Congress that enforces consumer protection measures and antitrust legislation. Its seats are typically comprised of three members of the president’s party and two from the opposing party.

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