Trump allowed to fire the leader of the Federal Trade Commission.

While they will still need to hear and rule on the merits the the case, this is a telling sign.

In an emergency order, a divided court announced that it would allow President Trump, for now, to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a F.T.C. commissioner, and that it would hear argument in the case in December, a signal that a majority of the court is ready to revisit a landmark precedent limiting presidential authority.

There is no good reason why the court would allow Trump to fire this person if there were not five members who leaning towards the ruling that he has the authority. In fact, even if this were up in the air, it would seem more prudent to allow her to continue while this plays out than to allow her to be fired. Someone else would need to be hired in the meantime, would hold the job for several months, and then what? The court would order the old commissioner to become commissioner again? Makes very little sense.

While this will be played out as a power grab by the President, the fundamental power grab was from Congress. Congress decided it had the authority to create an executive branch department that would not be overseen by the executive branch. There is nothing in the constitution that allows one branch of the Government to undermine another branch's authority. Could Congress create laws and then say that nobody has any authority to question these laws in court, and that the courts would not have authority to hear them? Can a President sign an executive order and demand that Congress cannot write any laws surrounding his order? Can a court order Congress to vote a certain way on a bill? There is separation of powers that is at least as important as the checks that people seem to talk about over and over and over. This idea that Congress can create an executive branch office and department and not have it overseen by the executive branch seems like overreach.

Time will tell, but I suspect that the USSC is going to rule in favor of the President again and that the left will scream and holler again.