President Donald Trump’s termination of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter is illegal under a decades-old Supreme Court ruling, a federal judge concluded on July 17.
The 1935 Supreme Court ruling, known as Humphrey’s Executor, upheld legal limitations Congress placed on removing members of the FTC.
Lawmakers said that presidents could only remove FTC commissioners for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Trump fired Slaughter earlier this year. In a letter explaining the decision, the White House said keeping her in place would be inconsistent with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“The answer to the key substantive question in this case—whether a unanimous Supreme Court decision about the FTC Act’s removal protections applies to a suit about the FTC Act’s removal protections—seems patently obvious,” U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan said in her ruling on Thursday….
Trump’s Firing of FTC Commissioner Was Illegal: Judge
