New York —
A federal appeals court ruled that Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Federal Trade Commission commissioner that President Donald Trump fired, can be temporarily reinstated in an order Tuesday.
Trump fired Slaughter and another Democratic FTC commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, in March. While a lower district court ordered her reinstatement on July 21, the Justice Department received an emergency stay from the appeals court that temporarily blocked Slaughter from being reinstated.
On Tuesday, an appeals court ordered that the stay be dissolved in a 2-1 decision. It also denied the Trump administration’s request to speed up the appeals process.
“The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,” the court order read, citing a 1935 Supreme Court decision that protects FTC leaders from getting fired by the president “at will.”
Tuesday’s ruling was a setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to significantly weaken several government watchdogs and regulators in Washington. Also in March, Trump attempted to drastically limit the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the banking watchdog.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, Slaughter said: “Amid the efforts by the Trump administration to illegally abolish independent agencies, including the Federal Reserve, I’m heartened the court has recognized that he is not above the law.”
“I’m very eager to get back first thing tomorrow to the work I was entrusted to do on behalf of the American people,” she continued.
The White House argued in a statement that Trump acted legally when he removed Slaughter, saying the Supreme Court twice allowed Trump to remove heads of agencies.
“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,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
The FTC was formed 111 years ago to enforce consumer protection and antitrust laws. Under then-Chair Lina Khan, the Biden administration aggressively took on major cases, such as the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger and the Kroger acquisition of Albertsons. The FTC commission is made up of five commissioners, with no more than three commissioners from the same political party.
Both Slaughter and Bedoya claimed they were ”illegally fired” in March and then sued. In June, Bedoya said on social media that he was formally resigning from the FTC.
“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 said in an emailed statement at the time.
She continued, “Why? Because I have a voice. And he is afraid of what I’ll tell the American people.”
ENTV has reached out to the FTC for comment.
This story has been updated with additional details.
