- President Donald Trump has fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission. The move is raising legal questions about the dismissal.
- The White House says Trump is within his rights under the U.S. Constitution and a Supreme Court ruling from 1926.
- The fired members of the commission claim a later Supreme Court ruling from 1935 precludes FTC commissioners from dismissals based solely on policy disagreement.
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President Donald Trump fired Democratic FTC Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya on Tuesday, March 19, saying their service with the regulator “is inconsistent with my administration’s priorities.”
The FTC is tasked with enforcing consumer protection and antitrust laws. The five-member commission is designed to be bipartisan, with three commissioners from the president’s party and two from the opposing party.
How did President Trump and the fired commissioners react?
“Your continued service on the F.T.C. is inconsistent with my administration’s priorities,” a letter sent to at least one of the fired commissioners seen by The Wall Street Journal reads. “Accordingly, I am removing you from office pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution.”
“The president just illegally fired me,” Bedoya, who was appointed to the commission by President Joe Biden, wrote in a post on X. “This is corruption plain and simple.”
“The president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies,” he added.
“The President illegally fired me from my position as a Federal Trade Commissioner, violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent,” Slaughter, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, said in a statement emailed to media outlets.
What Supreme Court precedent is the commissioner citing?
The precedent in question arises from Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. One hundred years ago, President Calvin Coolidge appointed William Humphrey to the FTC. Humphrey was reappointed by President Herbert Hoover to a seven-year term in 1931. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, he asked Humphrey to resign twice so he could appoint someone more supportive of his “New Deal” policies. Humphrey refused, and FDR eventually fired him, but Humphrey kept showing up to the commission.
“Any Commissioner may be removed by the President for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” the Federal Trade Commission Act reads.
The case made its way to the Supreme Court, where, in 1935, justices ruled that a president cannot fire members of the FTC solely on the basis of policy disagreement.
The White House argues SCOTUS justices got it wrong in 1935
In defending its actions in 2025, the White House is claiming a precedent that predates Humphrey’s. In 1926, Myers v. United States found the president can dismiss executive branch officials without approval from Congress. Humphrey narrowed the scope of the ruling to exclude FTC commissioners.
The White House argues FTC commissioners are more aligned with executive branch officials than justices understood at the time of the Humphrey ruling, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump-appointed FTC chair Andrew Ferguson believes the president has the legal authority to fire commissioners.
“President Donald J. Trump is the head of the executive branch and is vested with all of the executive power of our government,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government.”
It’s just the latest challenge to Trump’s powers
The president’s power over personnel is already being tested in the courts. Trump fired Democratic National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox shortly after taking office. A federal judge later reversed that dismissal and ordered Wilcox to be reinstated to her position.
“An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances, as are present here,” Judge Beryl Howell wrote of the case.
And after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled against Trump’s plans to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members, the president suggested he should be impeached.
“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
The post from President Trump elicited a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement emailed to Straight Arrow News. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Where does the FTC go from here?
It’s unclear at this time if the ousted commissioners plan to legally fight their firings. If they took a page from William Humphrey’s book, they’d be showing up to the office despite the dismissal.
For now, there are only two commissioners left at the FTC, Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak. The third, Republican nominee, Mark Meador, still needs to be confirmed by the Senate.