Supreme Court weighs an expansion of Trump’s power: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Lawrence Hurley recaps the oral arguments for a big case at the Supreme Court regarding presidential power. Plus, Allan Smith dives into Zohran Mamdani’s unique campaign field operation — and what Democrats can learn from it. And make sure to scroll to the end for our latest reader poll.

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— Adam Wollner

Supreme Court appears poised to rule for Trump on independent agency firings

By Lawrence Hurley

The Supreme Court appeared poised to side with President Donald Trump and allow him to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause, a provocative move aimed at upending the long-standing concept of independent federal agencies.

In a significant case on the structure of the federal government, the conservative-majority court heard oral arguments today on whether Trump had the authority to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter notwithstanding a law enacted by Congress to insulate the agency from political pressures.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has already signaled, with strong opposition from the three liberal justices, that Trump is likely to win the case by allowing Slaughter, a Democrat, to be removed from office while the litigation continues.

A ruling in Trump’s favor would have broad repercussions, not just for the FTC but also for a host of other federal agencies set up by Congress with similar removal restrictions, by giving presidents greater authority over them.

In addition to permitting Trump to fire Slaughter, the Supreme Court also allowed firings at some of the other affected agencies, further signaling that the majority favors Trump’s position.

There was little sign during today’s oral argument that the conservative majority would change its course, although some justices suggested some limits on the president’s removal powers, especially as it relates to the Federal Reserve, which is the subject of separate litigation.

What conservatives said: In ruling for Trump, the court could overturn a 1935 Supreme Court ruling called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which upheld those restrictions on the president’s power to fire FTC members.

In one exchange, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch said the Humphrey ruling was “poorly reasoned” and suggested he would be a vote to overturn it.

“There’s no such thing in our constitutional order as a fourth branch of government that’s quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative,” he said, referring to the idea that independent agencies do not fit within any of the three branches of government defined in the Constitution: the executive, Congress and the courts.

What liberals said: The liberal justices all mounted a defense of the long-standing protections for independent agency members.

“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.

Read more from Lawrence →

What Democrats can take from Zohran Mamdani’s outreach efforts for 2026

By Allan Smith

A strong field operation — which includes volunteers knocking on doors and talking to voters in their homes — can tip the scales in a close election. But Zohran Mamdani and his aides say their high-intensity canvassing effort was a difference-maker in both beating Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and then preventing the former governor from mounting a comeback in the New York City mayoral general election last month, which Mamdani won by about 9 points.

Mamdani’s field operation embraced risk and de-emphasized scripts in its strategy to reach voters directly, said eight campaign officials, volunteers and political observers, offering a potential road map for Democratic canvassing efforts in the midterm elections and beyond.

Mamdani and his campaign oriented his volunteers not only to juice turnout in favorable neighborhoods along the East River in Brooklyn and Queens, but also to persuade voters in majority-Black precincts who were seen as more skeptical of his upstart bid, as well as New Yorkers who backed Donald Trump in 2024 after, in many cases, having previously supported Democrats.

And while canvassers were armed with scripts detailing how to approach conversations, the campaign told volunteers they should feel free to share their personal stories with voters about why they were willing to do voter outreach on behalf of Mamdani, the 34-year-old self-described democratic socialist.

In total, more than 100,000 people volunteered for Mamdani’s campaign, knocking on more than 3.1 million doors, making 4.6 million calls and sending 2.7 million text messages to New Yorkers, his campaign said.

“When I had been preparing to run for mayor, I had heard from many that races at the scale of a mayoral one were not contested through field programs,” Mamdani said in an interview. “And we believed differently from the very beginning that we could build a program at a scale that the city had never seen before and do so focused on the belief that our most effective messengers were New Yorkers themselves.”

Yasmin Radjy, the executive director of Swing Left, a Democratic voter outreach group, said Mamdani’s team made three strategic decisions that she believes should inform Democratic campaigns across the midterm landscape: invest heavily in a ground operation, allow canvassers to go off-script, and spend time connecting with voters who might not be in so-called targeted groups. She said Mamdani’s campaign showed that “leaning into risk is the lower-risk option” for voter contact.

Read more from Allan →

📊Poll: Will Indiana Republicans approve a new congressional map?

After the Indiana House last week approved a redrawn congressional map that could net Republicans two seats, the state Senate is expected to vote on it in the coming days. But despite unyielding pressure from Trump, it remains unclear whether the map has enough GOP votes to pass.

What do you think will happen? Vote in our reader poll below!

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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