The Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and other consumer advocacy and technology groups are speaking out in defense of former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who was fired without cause by the Trump administration in March.
A total of 40 groups — including the Demand Progress Information Center and the UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice — today filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on whether Trump exceeded his legal authority with his firing of Slaughter. The court’s decision could overturn a 90-year-old precedent called Humphrey’s executorWhich prevents presidents from dismissing independent commissioners without cause.
The groups argue that if this happens, independent agencies like the FTC could become politicized and influenced by lobbying, weakening their ability to effectively pass regulations. The brief points to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) as warnings, saying they have “too often succumbed to industry dominance, leading to regulatory failures that have cost lives and eroded public trust.”
“The historical record is clear and confirms Congress’s deliberate choice: independent agencies outperform their political counterparts that are structurally vulnerable to presidential interference.”
As this brief explains, this case is less about protecting the overall autonomy of regulators than about one person’s job. It states, “The independence of some agencies, such as the FTC, from presidential control helps promote legitimate policy decisions, insulate leadership from presidential or industry pressure, and control administrative decisions.” Protections such as removal for cause ensure that those decisions are “made by experts, not pure partisans.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to begin oral arguments in the slaughter case on December 8.