Two Federal Trade Commission (FTC) members fired by President Trump sued him Thursday, setting up another major test of his administration’s expansionist view of presidential authority over independent agencies.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya’s lawsuit seeks back pay and reinstatement under the Supreme Court’s 90-year-old precedent that has enabled for-cause removal protections for independent agency leaders.
“Plaintiffs will not and do not accept this unlawful action: Plaintiffs bring this action to vindicate their right to serve the remainder of their respective terms, defend the integrity of the Commission, and to continue their work for the American people,” the complaint reads.
Like Trump’s other firings of independent agency leaders, the administration did not claim to have cause for firing the two FTC commissioners.
In the termination letters, an administration official told the commissioners their continued service at the FTC was “inconsistent” with the administration’s policies but did not specify further.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later told reporters the “time was right to let these people go” and pledged to defend the decision in court.
The FTC is tasked with enforcing antitrust law and consumer protection, separate from the direction of the White House.
The government contends the agency leaders’ removal protections are unconstitutional, a position that could prompt the Supreme Court to revisit its 1935 precedent allowing such protections, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. Several of the court’s conservatives have expressed skepticism about the precedent, and more broadly have issued rulings in recent years clawing back the so-called “administrative state.”
Similar lawsuits have been filed by fired Democratic appointees at other independent agencies, like the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board. Those two challenges are already progressing on appeal and are now one level below the Supreme Court.
But the government has attempted to distinguish those agencies from the FTC, which sets up the most direct challenge yet, as it was the very agency the Supreme Court greenlighted in deciding Humphrey’s Executor.
“In short, it is bedrock, binding precedent that a President cannot remove an FTC Commissioner without cause. And yet that is precisely what has happened here,” the lawsuit reads.
Slaughter and Bedoya are represented by Protect Democracy, an antiauthoritarian organization backing multiple lawsuits against Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy, and law firm Clarick Gueron Reisbaum.
A slew of Democratic lawmakers and tech advocacy groups were quick to slam the firings earlier this month, suggesting the move was in part a favor to leading technology companies and their executives who face ongoing enforcement complaints from the agency.
Slaughter alleged the Trump administration is fearful of the “opposition voices” that would arise if he ordered the FTC chair to “treat the most powerful corporations and their executives – like those that flanked the president at his inauguration with kid gloves.”
Bedoya described his firing as “corruption plain and simple,” and called out Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who attempted to reconcile his relationship with Trump ahead of his second term.
The FTC has brought antitrust allegations against Amazon, while a trial for Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — is slated to begin at the agency next month.
With the removal of Bedoya and Slaughter, the commission only has two sitting members — FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak — while Trump’s Republican nominee, Mark Meador, awaits confirmation in the Senate.
