Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the Democratic FTC commissioners whom President Trump fired in March, said she can’t wait to get back to work. US
District Judge Loren AliKhan arrives governed that his dismissal from the agency was “illegal and without legal effect” and that he was still a “legitimate member” of the Commission. The judge said the firings violated safeguards that prevent a president from unilaterally firing heads of independent agencies.
In his statement following the decision, Slaughter said saying The “just cause protections that apply to her and her FTC colleagues also protect other independent economic regulators such as the SEC, the FDIC, and the Federal Reserve.” Slaughter was one of two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission that Trump ousted, leaving only three Republican commissioners at the top.
Historically, the FTC has had five members: three from the same party as the president and two from the opposite party. At the moment, The FTC website lists only the three current Republican commissioners, including Chairman Andrew Ferguson.
the president said before that “he has no doubts about (Trump’s) constitutional authority to remove the commissioners, which is necessary to ensure the democratic accountability of the government.” The other fired Democratic commissioner, Álvaro Bedoya, was initially part of the lawsuit. However, his applications were rejected as he resigned from the agency entirely and has since accepted a job in the private sector, saying he could not afford to have no income while the case was pending in court.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said The New York Times that the government would appeal AliKhan’s decision. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the president’s constitutional authority to fire and remove executives who exercise his authority,” he added. The judge expected this and noted in her ruling that the case would likely reach the Supreme Court.
As policy The Supreme Court had already pointed this out previously. refund was denied the members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board that Trump fired. These personnel should also be protected by a federal law that limits the president’s ability to remove officials from government agencies.
