Donald Trump just got an unexpected win that will keep Biden-appointed Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter on the sidelines for the majority of the remainder of the year, if not longer.
According to the FTC Act, commissioners are installed for a 7-year term and can only be terminated for cause.
Slaughter had challenged Trump's decision to remove her from her role, and while the lower courts handed her a win, the U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the president until oral arguments are heard in December.
Trump has been pushing the limits on presidential control of federal agencies since taking office, with one of his first moves involving the removal of commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, both of whom were appointed to the FTC by Democrats.
These commissioners, while having presidential appointments, are supposed to operate independently.
Trump suspected that his agenda would be blocked by commisioners such as these, so he decided they needed to go, and he fired them both.
Slaughter, after her termination, stated, “This is a sign that the guardrails are coming off the protections for freedom and fairness in our economy. And it is a sign that honest businesses should be worried about corruption permeating markets.”
Trump lost the initial challenge at the lower court, and he lost again at the appeal level, with the court ordering Slaughter's reinstatement.
When the ruling came down, White House spokesperson Kush Desai immediately stated the administration's intent to continue its fight.
Desai stated, "The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the President's constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers who exercise his authority.”
He continued, "The Trump Administration will appeal this unlawful decision and looks forward to victory on this issue.”
To be clear, this is not a final win, but my experience watching the Supreme Court has been that when it thinks the final ruling will fall a certain way, it tends to uphold the position of the party likely to prevail when it comes to more preliminary questions.
Every conservative justice sided with the White House in this ruling, and every liberal justice dissented. The court will hear oral arguments in December, so Trump’s firings will remain in place until those arguments are held and a final decision rendered, which will likely not be until next year unless the Court expedites its ruling.
Justice Elena Kagan was livid, stating, "Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation’s separation of powers."
From what I have read from a host of legal experts, it does appear that the Supreme Court is purposely trying to narrow the scope of the precedent in the decades-old case of Humphrey's Executor, if not outright reversing the opinion. I would also note that while this is a win for Trump, eventually a Democrat will be back in the White House, and when that happens, a hatchet will be taken to every Republican appointment serving on these “independent” commissions. So, keep that in mind before celebrating too much over this win.
