Federal Judge Reinstates Commissioner Slaughter at FTC
President Donald Trump’s firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter violated the FTC Act’s removal protections, a federal judge ruled Thursday, reinstating Slaughter at the agency. The White House said it will appeal.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, in her 42-page opinion, said she expects the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will decide the case and questions about Humphrey’s Executor, a 1935 high court decision that established the agency’s firing protections. “This court has no illusions about where this case’s journey leads,” AliKhan wrote.
The judge dismissed as moot claims from another fired Democratic FTC commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, citing his June resignation (see 2506100030).
AliKhan said the Trump administration has acted as if the FTC is “a subservient agency subject to the whims of the President and wholly lacking in autonomy.” That’s “not how Congress structured it,” she added. “Undermining that autonomy by allowing the President to remove Commissioners at will inflicts an exceptionally unique harm distinct from the mine run of wrongful termination cases.”
Slaughter in a statement said she looks forward to returning to work. For-cause protections apply to officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve, she said: “All these agencies were designed by Congress so that the economy wouldn’t experience whiplash every time the political winds change.”
Bedoya called Thursday’s ruling a “massive victory for American families and the rule of law.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said in a statement: “The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the President’s constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority. The Trump Administration will appeal this unlawful decision and looks forward to victory on this issue.”
The FTC didn’t comment Friday.
The Supreme Court in May issued an order granting the Trump administration’s request for a stay of two district court decisions enjoining Trump from firing members of the National Labor Relations Board and a Merit Systems Protection Board employee. Conservative justices issued the order in an emergency docket for Trump v. Wilcox. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson have argued Humphrey’s Executor should be overturned because the agency has greatly expanded its powers since 1935 and is in conflict with the president’s executive authority (see 2502200060 and 2505230044).
Consumer Reports and the Electronic Privacy Information Center welcomed Thursday’s decision.
“The court’s reinstatement of Commissioner Slaughter is an important step toward a fully staffed and fully functional FTC, and we look forward to pushing for robust enforcement of consumer privacy standards at the Commission,” said EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler.
CR Technology Policy Director Justin Brookman said the commission “was designed to be independent and bipartisan, so it could focus on its mission, not the politics of the moment. That is essential for the integrity of the agency’s work.”