WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump to fire a Federal Trade Commissioner without cause in another full-frontal attack on the concept of independent federal agencies.
The request is a direct challenge to a 1935 Supreme Court precedent 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.
In March, Trump sought to fire two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Both challenged the move, although Bedoya later dropped out of the case.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the latest court filing that the FTC wields more power now than it did when it was founded, which strengthens Trump's hand in seeking to control it via his presidential powers under Article 2 of the Constitution.
"In this case, the lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the President has determined should not exercise any executive power, let alone significant rulemaking and enforcement powers," Sauer wrote.
He also asked the court to fast-track consideration of the case, skipping over any further lower court proceedings.
A federal judge in July ruled in favor of Slaughter, citing the 1935 ruling. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reached a similar conclusion last week.
Slaughter is currently listed as a serving commissioner on the agency's website.
Trump has also sought to remove members of other independent federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has allowed.
Those decisions have been contentious because the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, endorsed the firings despite the 1935 ruling, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, still being on the books.
It also left lower court judges confused as to how to address similar cases.
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.
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 has in recent years undercut the power of independent agencies, with Sauer arguing that those rulings should trump the 1935 decision.
"Under this Court’s cases, the President must be able to remove, at will, members of multimember commissions that exercise substantial executive power," he wrote.
