A Democrat who was fired from the Federal Trade Commission by President Trump was reinstated to her position yesterday in an appeals court ruling.
Trump’s firing of Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter violated Supreme Court precedent, said yesterday’s ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A District Court judge ruled the same way in July, but Slaughter couldn’t get back to work because of an administrative stay that delayed the lower-court ruling from taking effect.
The administrative stay was dissolved in yesterday’s appeals court ruling, in which a three-judge panel also ruled 2–1 to deny the US government’s motion for a longer-term stay pending appeal. “The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,” the panel majority said.
The panel pointed to a 1935 case, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that the president can only remove FTC commissioners for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. Trump’s termination notices sent to Slaughter and Democrat Alvaro Bedoya said, “Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities. Accordingly, I am removing you from office pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution.”
In yesterday’s ruling, the panel said:
Specifically, ninety years ago, a unanimous Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission Act’s for-cause removal protection for Federal Trade Commissioners. Over the ensuing decades—and fully informed of the substantial executive power exercised by the Commission—the Supreme Court has repeatedly and expressly left Humphrey’s Executor in place, and so precluded Presidents from removing Commissioners at will. Then just four months ago, the Supreme Court stated that adherence to extant precedent like Humphrey’s Executor controls in resolving stay motions. To grant a stay would be to defy the Supreme Court’s decisions that bind our judgments. That we will not do.
Back to work, FTC Democrat says
The Slaughter case could end up at the Supreme Court. For now, Slaughter wrote that she would be getting back to work this morning.
