"This is one of the hottest benches I've seen in a while."

There's live-blogging of Trump v. Slaughter going on over at SCOTUSblog.

ADDED: I'm listening to the direct audio from the Court, which is here.

AND: At SCOTUSblog, Amy Howe observes that "a solid majority of the justices appeared to agree with the Trump administration that a law prohibiting the president from firing FTC commissioners except in cases of 'inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office' violates the constitutional separation of powers....  Much of the argument focused on the possible broader effects of a ruling for either the Trump administration or Slaughter. The justices questioned whether a decision in Slaughter’s favor could give Congress sweeping power, including the authority to convert existing Cabinet departments into multi-member agencies that would be insulated from presidential control.... In what was likely a bad sign for Slaughter, the justices spent virtually no time on the second question presented in the case – whether, even if the FTC removal statute is constitutional, a federal judge can order the reinstatement of an official who was fired without case, or whether that official is only entitled to back pay...."

Predictions elsewhere are similar: "Justices Seem Ready to Give Trump More Power to Fire Independent Government Officials" (NYT), "Supreme Court poised to expand Trump’s power over independent agencies" (WaPo).

Here's the transcript of the argument. Listening to the audio, I scrawled down one phrase I wanted to use to find the one quote I most wanted to blog. But I'm going to start a new post for that. The phrase was "cards on the table."