40 Consumer Protection, Privacy Groups Challenge Firing of FTC’s Slaughter
Almost a century of precedent shows former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter should be reinstated, said a coalition of 40 consumer protection, data privacy and competition groups in an amicus brief Thursday.
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The brief was filed at the U.S. Supreme Court, which is set to hear oral argument in Trump v. Slaughter in December (see 2509220054). Slaughter is one of two Democratic commissioners whom Trump fired in late March, which some critics said was illegal (see 2503190049). The former commissioners sued to be reinstated shortly after (see 2503270056).
The FTC was established as an “independent commission,” where “Congress made a crucial choice to shield commissioners from at-will removal by the President,” the brief said. Accordingly, “independent regulatory commissions with bipartisan membership and for-cause removal protections have safeguarded the public interest by grounding decisions in expertise and national needs rather than politics” throughout history.
The FTC is not the only independent agency with these protections; the Securities and Exchange Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Transportation Safety Board also have them, according to the brief.
Congress made a “deliberate choice” when insulating independent agencies in this way, as they “outperform their politicized counterparts that are structurally vulnerable to presidential meddling.”
A ruling by the high court against precedent “will undermine these principles and expose the American public and markets to a heavily politicized and industry-influenced administration of laws,” and “pose significant risks to Americans’ safety and stability.”
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was one of the groups that signed the brief. “For nearly a century, Congress, the Court, the President, and the public at large have all accepted the wisdom and legality of protecting key agencies from undue political interference,” said John Davisson, EPIC's director of litigation, in a release.
“Yet this administration is engaged in a radical attempt to rewrite settled constitutional law and grant itself unchecked administrative power,” a “cynical maneuver” which the high court “should reject,” he added. “President Trump’s order claiming to fire Commissioner Slaughter is as illegal today as it was eight months ago.”
Slaughter and another former FTC official decried the decline of the federal agency at a Wednesday event hosted by Public Knowledge (see 2511120037).