Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire FTC Commissioner

The firings are a direct challenge to a 1935 Supreme Court precedent called Humphrey's Executor v. United States that upheld limits on the president’s ability to fire FTC commissioners without cause, a restriction Congress imposed to protect the agency from political pressure.

Under the 1914 law that set up the agency, members can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

But the Supreme Court, whose majority has been skeptical of the concept of independent federal agencies that are not subject to presidential control, has undermined such protections in recent years in a series of cases involving other agencies.

This year, Trump has also sought to remove members of other independent federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has allowed.

The FTC has five commissioners who serve seven-year terms —with no more than three from one political party. Slaughter and Bedoya both served as Democratic members, although Trump originally appointed Bedoya in 2018. President Joe Biden reappointed her in 2024.