Fired FTC Commissioners Sue for Reinstatement

They’re also suing FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak to regain agency access and carry out their commission duties. Slaughter and Bedoya cited their children’s privacy enforcement work in a list of consumer protection accomplishments while in office. Slaughter, in a statement, cited the agency’s role in writing rules that protect children online.

Now operating with a 2-0 majority, Ferguson said he plans to finalize a pending rule under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (see 2503260068).

Ferguson issued a statement Thursday saying the president has the executive power to remove commissioners under the Constitution as a way of ensuring “democratic accountability.” He said Slaughter and Bedoya will have “their day in court,” but he has “no doubt” the firings will be upheld. In the meantime, the FTC will “continue its tireless work to protect consumers from unlawful monopolies and fraud,” he added.

The White House on Thursday said Trump lawfully removed the commissioners after determining their service was “inconsistent with the Administration’s priorities. The President will continue to implement his common sense agenda, which the American people decisively voted for.”

Slaughter and Bedoya in their complaint cited protections established by the U.S. Supreme Court in its unanimous 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor (see 2502200060). “Providing some protection from removal at the President’s whim is essential to ensuring that agency officials can exercise their own judgment,” they argued. The Supreme Court found the president can only remove commissioners for inefficiency, neglect or malfeasance, not because their service is “inconsistent” with the administration’s priorities, they said.

Allowing the FTC’s COPPA rule to go unpublished in the Federal Register is a “worrying sign,” former FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director Sam Levine said Thursday during a Consumer Federation of America event. Trump “illegally” fired the FTC’s “two biggest champions for consumer privacy,” he noted. With the bipartisan agreement on COPPA unpublished leaves children “exposed for no reason.” Ferguson and Holyoak voted in favor of finalizing the COPPA rule under the Biden administration (see 2501160068).

“What’s happening to American consumers is brutal when you consider how information about them is being collected, manipulated, shared and sold at their expense,” Erie Meyer, former chief technologist at the FTC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said during the CFA event. People will feel “real economic pain” from data privacy failures resulting from the administration’s efforts to cut agency staff and officials, Meyer added.

Slaughter and Bedoya asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the president can only remove commissioners “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The court should issue an injunction against Ferguson, Holyoak and FTC Executive Director David Robbins to allow full access to offices and staff. Bedoya has said he hasn’t attempted to enter the FTC building because he doesn’t want to put security in the position of having to deny access.