FTC Commissioner Can Stay in Office for Now, Court Says (3)

A US appeals court reinstated an order that lets FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter temporarily remain in office despite President Donald Trump’s attempt to oust her.

Trump sought to remove Slaughter, a Democrat, from her position in March. She later sued, arguing her ouster flouted the Federal Trade Commission Act, which says a president can remove a member of the FTC only for cause such as inefficiency or neglect of duty. A DC federal judge ruled in her favor in July, but the federal government appealed and her status remained in limbo.

Voting 2-1, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said it was bound by a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that let Congress protect the leaders of the FTC from being fired.

“I’m eager to get back first thing tomorrow to the work I was entrusted to do on behalf of the American people,” Slaughter said in a post on X.

The Trump administration could now ask the Supreme Court to allow Slaughter’s removal while the legal fight over her job status goes forward.

“The Supreme Court has twice in the last few months confirmed the president’s authority to remove the heads of executive agencies,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “We look forward to being vindicated for a third time — and hopefully after this ruling, the lower courts will cease their defiance of Supreme Court orders.”

(Updates with White House comment in sixth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Josh Sisco and Jennifer A. Dlouhy.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net;
Leah Nylen in Washington at lnylen2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Ben Bain

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