Our Favorite Things, 2025

December 22, 2025

75 min episode · 2 min read

Jordan Thomas,Ellen Weintraub

Episode

75 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jan 2, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Agency Independence Under Threat: Trump v. Slaughter arguments reveal justices may eliminate protections preventing presidential removal of independent agency heads, allowing consolidation of executive power over agencies like FTC and FEC that currently check corporate monopolies and protect consumers from billion-dollar industries seeking deregulation.
✓Campaign Finance Coordination Already Happening: Despite Supreme Court justices calling circumvention of contribution limits speculative, joint fundraising committees in 2016 elections collected hundreds of thousands per donor, immediately transferring funds from state party accounts back to national committees, with some state parties unaware contributions passed through their accounts.
✓FEC Rendered Non-Functional: Federal Election Commission now operates with only two commissioners after Trump fired Ellen Weintraub and three Republican commissioners departed, falling below the four-member quorum required for enforcement actions, effectively preventing the agency from interpreting or enforcing campaign finance laws regardless of Supreme Court rulings.
✓Decapitation Strategy Across Agencies: Presidential firings without replacing commissioners creates functional elimination of agencies including NLRB and CPSC, achieving government dismantling goals through constitutional authority claims rather than unpopular Doge-style cuts, while intimidating remaining federal employees from voicing independent opinions contradicting administration positions.
✓Wisconsin Supreme Court Fiction: Conservative Wisconsin justices fabricated quotes from Moore v. Harper claiming state courts have exceedingly limited redistricting roles, later modifying opinions nonsensically after the quote proved nonexistent, attempting to block challenges to extreme partisan gerrymanders that could undo Republican electoral advantages statewide.

What It Covers

Strict Scrutiny hosts discuss Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter on agency independence and RNC v. FEC on campaign finance, featuring former FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub on threats to regulatory oversight.

Key Questions Answered

•Agency Independence Under Threat: Trump v. Slaughter arguments reveal justices may eliminate protections preventing presidential removal of independent agency heads, allowing consolidation of executive power over agencies like FTC and FEC that currently check corporate monopolies and protect consumers from billion-dollar industries seeking deregulation.
•Campaign Finance Coordination Already Happening: Despite Supreme Court justices calling circumvention of contribution limits speculative, joint fundraising committees in 2016 elections collected hundreds of thousands per donor, immediately transferring funds from state party accounts back to national committees, with some state parties unaware contributions passed through their accounts.
•FEC Rendered Non-Functional: Federal Election Commission now operates with only two commissioners after Trump fired Ellen Weintraub and three Republican commissioners departed, falling below the four-member quorum required for enforcement actions, effectively preventing the agency from interpreting or enforcing campaign finance laws regardless of Supreme Court rulings.
•Decapitation Strategy Across Agencies: Presidential firings without replacing commissioners creates functional elimination of agencies including NLRB and CPSC, achieving government dismantling goals through constitutional authority claims rather than unpopular Doge-style cuts, while intimidating remaining federal employees from voicing independent opinions contradicting administration positions.
•Wisconsin Supreme Court Fiction: Conservative Wisconsin justices fabricated quotes from Moore v. Harper claiming state courts have exceedingly limited redistricting roles, later modifying opinions nonsensically after the quote proved nonexistent, attempting to block challenges to extreme partisan gerrymanders that could undo Republican electoral advantages statewide.

Notable Moment

Justice Kavanaugh expressed concern about agencies exercising massive power over billion-dollar industries, revealing the court's framing prioritizes corporate interests over the original purpose of regulatory agencies: protecting citizens, consumers, and employees from concentrated wealth and monopolistic business practices.

Know someone who'd find this useful?