WASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2025 – Following reporting that the Supreme Court may be poised to give unprecedented power to the President over independent agencies, Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel, Andrew Bakaj, released the following statement:
“The Supreme Court’s apparent willingness to give the President unchecked authority over independent agencies is deeply alarming. This isn’t just another blow to independence and oversight. It is a flagrant violation of the design of these agencies, which were built to ensure continuity, expertise, and political neutrality across everything from elections to product safety. Allowing any president – let alone a president with a vendetta against American democracy – to inject politics into decisions that should be grounded in facts would be profoundly damaging to public interest.
Whistleblowers need steady, trusted systems to safely report wrongdoing. If the leadership of independent agencies can be replaced with the flick of the President’s pen, that stability, along with whistleblower protections, disappears.
The framers created a system of checks and balances to prevent exactly what the Supreme Court is set to do: to give one person sweeping, unrestrained authority. We urge the Court to uphold the long-standing principles that have safeguarded the integrity and continuity of our regulatory system for nearly a century.
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