By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow him to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission in an emergency appeal that could further erode the autonomy of independent federal agencies.

At the center of the latest legal battle over Trump’s ability to control those agencies is Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who has served on the Federal Trade Commission since 2018. Trump fired Slaughter in March, despite a federal law that permits the dismissal of FTC commissioners only for cause.

A divided federal appeals court earlier this week ordered Slaughter to be reinstated while the litigation over her firing plays out. Trump has repeatedly won similar cases at the Supreme Court in recent months – a point the Department of Justice was quick to note on Thursday.

“The lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the president has determined should not exercise any executive power, let alone significant rulemaking and enforcement powers,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court.

In addition to asking the court to keep Slaughter off the payroll in the short term, the Trump administration also asked the justices to take up the case on the merits. If the court agrees to do so, the case could spell trouble for a 1935 precedent that has shielded the leadership of independent agencies from the political whims of the White House.

In a series of recent emergency orders, the court has allowed Trump – ever eager to remove dissenting voices from power – to fire leaders of independent agencies who were appointed by former President Joe Biden. The court’s liberal wing has complained that, following those decisions, the 1935 decision is already effectively dead.

Trump fired Slaughter and another Democratic FTC commissioner in March. A federal district court ordered her reinstatement in July. On Tuesday, an appeals court declined to allow Trump to remove Slaughter for now.

“The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,” the court order read, citing the 1935 case, Humphrey’s Executor v. US.

CNN has reached out to Slaughter, the FTC and the White House for comment.

CNN’s Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.

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