FTC commissioners sue to block Trump from firing them

Ousted Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Thursday to reverse their removals, becoming the latest government officials to turn to the courts after being fired by President Donald Trump. 

The Trump administration on March 18 fired FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter, despite their terms not ending until 2026 and 2029, respectively.

In their lawsuit, the former commissioners referenced current law that states FTC members can only be removed by the president “for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” They also cited a 1935 Supreme Court case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States in which the justices determined that dismissing an FTC commissioner for differences in policy is unconstitutional. 

“In short, it is bedrock, binding precedent that a president cannot remove an FTC commissioner without cause,” according to the lawsuit. “And yet that is precisely what has happened here: President Trump has purported to terminate plaintiffs as FTC commissioners, not because they were inefficient, neglectful of their duties or engaged in malfeasance, but simply because their ‘continued service on the FTC is’ supposedly ‘inconsistent with [his] administration’s priorities.’” 

The Trump administration argued in the termination notice that the Humphrey’s Executor decision is no longer relevant: “The exception recognized in Humphrey’s Executor does not fit the principal officers who head the FTC today. As presently constituted, the FTC exercises substantial executive power.” 

Bedoya posted on X that the lawsuit is bigger than he and Slaughter. 

“This is about economic stability,” he wrote. “If the president can break a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling to fire us for no reason, he can do it to the [Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Securities and Exchange Commission].” 

Republican FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, who Trump named as chairman upon his inauguration, said in a statement that the president has “the constitutional authority to remove commissioners from agencies that wield substantial executive power.” 

“My Democrat former colleagues are entitled to their day in court, but I have no doubt that President Trump’s lawful powers will ultimately be confirmed,” he said. 

The FTC is composed of five commissioners and no more than three can be from the same party. Along with Ferguson, Melissa Holyoak is the other current Republican FTC commissioner. A Senate committee on March 12 advanced, 20-8, Trump’s nominee to fill the remaining Republican slot — Mark Meador, an antitrust attorney who has worked for the FTC, Justice Department and Senate Judiciary Committee. 

A circuit court on March 18 heard the Trump administration’s appeal to suspend rulings from district judges that reinstated ousted Biden appointees who were removed ahead of the end of their terms on the Merit Systems Protection Board and National Labor Relations Board.