The Trump administration’s dismissal of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) two democratic members will likely lead to a lawsuit with the potential to reach the Supreme Court, according to legal experts.
Former FTC Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya were fired late last week, raising questions about the agency’s continued independence.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson addressed the move in a statement affirming his commitment to carrying out the vision of the president.
“President Donald J. Trump is the head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power in our government,” Ferguson said. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government. The Federal Trade Commission will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices, and police anticompetitive behavior. I wish Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya well, and I thank them for their service.”
Bedoya and Slaughter both stated publicly they intend to file suit to enjoin the actions as a violation of the FTC Act, which stipulates that FTC commissioners may be removed “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“The president just illegally fired me,” Bedoya wrote in a defiant statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). “The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists. Our staff is unafraid of the Martin Shkrelis and Jeff Bezos of the world. They take them to court and they win. Now, the president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.”
According to a client update published to the Davis Polk law firm’s website, the former commissioners’ case is likely to make it all the way to the Supreme Court.
“In the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 opinion in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the limits the FTC Act imposes on the ability to remove a sitting FTC commissioner based on a finding that the FTC did not exercise executive authority at that time,” the law firm wrote. “Any challenge from Bedoya or Slaughter will first be adjudicated in the lower federal courts, although it is likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately have to assess the dismissal under Humphrey’s Executor and to determine whether the removal restrictions are consistent with Article II of the Constitution, which vests the president with ‘the executive power.’”
Bedoya and Slaughter may request to be reinstated via a lower court, pending the Supreme Court’s decision, according to the firm, citing the case of Wilcox v. Trump, in the context of the National Labor Relations Board, where such a request was granted.