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Democratic FTC Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya sued President Donald Trump on March 27, 2025, after he attempted to remove them without stating a legal cause. A district court initially ruled for Slaughter, but that was not the final word: on June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court overruled Humphrey’s Executor, the precedent on which the district court had relied, and sent the case back for further proceedings.
Why did the Democratic FTC commissioners sue Trump?
On March 18, 2025, Slaughter and Bedoya were told that Trump was removing them from the Federal Trade Commission. The White House email reportedly gave no legal cause. The commissioners argued that the attempted removals violated protections in the FTC Act and longstanding Supreme Court precedent limiting presidential removal of FTC commissioners.
They filed suit on March 27, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The dispute was about more than the two commissioners’ jobs: it raised the constitutional question of whether Congress could shield FTC commissioners from removal at will by the president.
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In announcing the filing, Slaughter described the agency’s work and defended its independence. Protect Democracy, an advocacy group, quoted her as saying: “We make rules that require tech companies to protect children’s privacy online. We promote competition in the pharmaceutical industry to drive prices down. And we can do all of this because the FTC can’t be bought with campaign contributions or bullied by politicians.” That was her argument for the value of independence, not a finding by a court.
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What happened in the case?
| Date | Event | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| March 18, 2025 | The commissioners were informed of the attempted removals; the White House email reportedly stated no legal cause. | This prompted the dispute over whether the president could remove FTC commissioners without cause. |
| March 27, 2025 | Slaughter and Bedoya filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. | Their claims challenged the attempted removals under the FTC Act and constitutional precedent. |
| July 17, 2025 | The district court granted summary judgment to Slaughter. Bedoya had resigned, and the court dismissed his claim as moot. | The court treated Humphrey’s Executor as binding authority at that time. |
| September 22, 2025 | The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case before the D.C. Circuit issued a final merits judgment and stayed the district court order. | The stay put the district court’s order on hold while the Supreme Court considered the constitutional issue. |
| December 8, 2025 | The Supreme Court heard oral argument. | The justices considered the validity of FTC commissioner removal protections and whether to overrule Humphrey’s Executor. |
| June 29, 2026 | The Supreme Court overruled Humphrey’s Executor and remanded the case for further proceedings. | This replaced the district court’s reliance on that precedent with the Supreme Court’s later ruling. |
What did the district court decide?
The district court ruled for Slaughter on July 17, 2025, applying Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 1935 Supreme Court decision that had been understood to permit limits on the president’s power to remove FTC commissioners. The district court addressed statutory, administrative-law, and constitutional disputes in reaching its decision.
That ruling was an important stage in the case, but it is not the current controlling endpoint. The Supreme Court later stayed the district court order while it reviewed the constitutional question, then overruled the precedent on which the lower court had relied.
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What did the Supreme Court decide in Trump v. Slaughter?
On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court concluded that the FTC exercises executive power and rejected the constitutional framework of Humphrey’s Executor. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court: “If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it.” The Court overruled the 1935 precedent and remanded the case for further proceedings.
The procedural result matters: the Supreme Court did not simply leave the July 2025 district court judgment in place. It had stayed that order during its review, and its 2026 decision changed the governing precedent and returned the case to the lower courts. The case’s next steps therefore belong to the proceedings on remand.
Can the president fire FTC commissioners?
The Supreme Court’s 2026 decision rejected the precedent that had supported protection of FTC commissioners from at-will presidential removal. The ruling directly concerns the FTC commissioner dispute in Trump v. Slaughter; its consequences for other agencies should not be assumed to be identical without examining the statutes and later decisions that apply to them.
The institutional stakes are significant because the FTC combines rulemaking, enforcement, and adjudicatory functions. It is structured as a five-member commission whose members serve seven-year terms. The dispute tested how those features fit with presidential authority over officials exercising executive power.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened to Slaughter and Bedoya?
Slaughter’s removal claim continued through the case and was the claim at issue when the Supreme Court acted. Bedoya resigned after the litigation began, so the district court dismissed his claim as moot. The Supreme Court’s decision is therefore best understood through Slaughter’s case; it did not revive Bedoya’s dismissed claim.
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