Democratic FTC commissioners sue Trump over firings

(CN) — In the latest challenge to President Donald Trump’s firing spree, two Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit Thursday, claiming their recent terminations were unlawful.

In thecomplaint filed in D.C. federal court, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro M. Bedoya said their firings directly violate precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court that’s been upheld for the last 90 years.

In 1935, the high court ruled unanimously that the president cannot remove appointed leaders of federal agencies without cause.

“And yet that is precisely what has happened here,” Slaughter and Bedoya wrote in their complaint.

Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, commissioners can only be removed “by the president for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

But Slaughter and Bedoya argue that none of those reasons were listed in the email they received last week from Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel. It included a message from Trump: “I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately.”

“Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities," Trump wrote. “Accordingly, I am removing you from office pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution.”

Their terminations were further unlawful as commissioners are supposed to serve staggered seven-year terms, Slaughter and Bedoya argued.

Trump himself nominated Slaughter to serve as a Democratic commissioner in 2018. As she was nominated again last year by former President Joe Biden, her appointment is not set to expire until September 2029.

Bedoya was nominated to serve by Biden, with over a year remaining of his tenure that was expected to end in September 2026.

The FTC was created by Congress more than a century ago as a bipartisan federal agency that is responsible for combatting unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive business practices to protect consumers. To ensure the quality and fairness of the agency’s decisionmaking, no more than three of the commission’s five members can be of the same political party.

Last week, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and 27 Senate colleagues urged the president to reverse the terminations in their fight to reinstate federal employees plucked by Trump.

A similar suit was filed last month by Hampton Dellinger, a government watchdog employee whose role would typically enjoy protections from political leaders firing them at will, yet he received a one-sentence termination email from Trump. Earlier this month, however, a D.C. Circuit panel lifted a temporary order allowing him to keep his position as head of the Office of Special Counsel.

Dellinger’s case was the first to reach the Supreme Court, which will likely be faced with either overturning or strengthening its landmark case, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States , that has long limited the president’s ability to remove independent agency heads.

Eight former inspectors general appointed to the Departments of Defense, State, Education, Labor, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration also asked a judge to reinstate their “unlawful” dismissals.

Just hours before that lawsuit, Trump fired U.S. Agency for International Development Inspector General Paul Martin, shortly after Martin issued a report critical of Trump’s effort to dismantle the humanitarian aid agency. Martin warned that the move risked wasting nearly $500 million in undelivered food aid.

Federal judges in Washington remain busy reviewing Trump’s sweeping efforts to reshape the federal government, particularly his attempts to fire members of the “bureaucracy” that he and billionaire ally Elon Musk have deemed enemies of their “America First” agenda.

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