Supreme Court Hands Victory to Trump in His Fight to Control ‘Independent’ Agencies 

The Supreme Court said Monday that President Donald Trump could fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, marking a victory for Trump as he seeks to exert more control over so-called independent agencies. 

The order, issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, temporarily halted a lower court demand that the Trump administration reinstate the fired official—despite the official’s arguments that Trump violated federal law. 

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the commissioner in question, was appointed to a Democrat seat on the commission by Congress in 2018 after serving as chief counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. In 2023, President Joe Biden nominated her to a second term, citing her advocacy for “those traditionally underrepresented and marginalized.” 

The FTC, which enforces consumer protection and antitrust laws, is a bipartisan commission set up so that no more than three of the five seats can be filled by members of the same party. In March, Trump fired Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the other Democrat commissioner, calling their service “inconsistent” with “administration priorities.” 

The two sued, saying Trump violated the FTC Act, a federal law that in part prevents FTC commissioners from being fired without cause, limiting firings to “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” 

Bedoya later resigned, but Slaughter continued her case.? 

In July, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, a Biden appointee, sided with Slaughter, saying Trump “did not comply with the FTC Act’s removal protections” and thus fired her illegally. To allow Trump to fire Slaughter would be to “subject a commissioner to ‘the mere will of the president,’” she said. 

The Trump administration appealed that decision, but last week, a split panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay the lower court’s decision, with two Obama appointees affirming the decision to reinstate Slaughter despite the objections of a Trump-appointed judge.? 

Two days later, the Trump administration appealed again, this time taking its case to the nation’s highest court.? 

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who filed the appeal, cited recent Supreme Court orders allowing Trump to fire officials at other independent agencies like the National Labor Relations Board. 

“In this case, the lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the president has determined should not exercise any executive power,” Sauer said. “Once again, this court should intervene.” 

On Monday, the Supreme Court sided with Sauer and the administration, issuing an order preventing Slaughter from being reinstated while the full case is being heard. 

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