Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—Slaughter recommends FTC practices in wake of Supreme Court ruling, (Aug 4, 2026)

By Paul Kirby,paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Slaughter also said in her speech at an AAI event that the Supreme Court’s decision on the “unitary executive” theory “will stand the test of time.”

Former Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter today recommended practices her former agency should revive or preserve in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June ruling that the FTC Act’s for-cause removal provision violates the Constitution’s separation of powers principle. In the 6-3 ruling in a case challenging President Trump’s 2025 firing of Ms. Slaughter, the court said that the Constitution vests all executive power in the president and to exercise that power the president must be able to remove executive branch officers lest they use his authority in ways he does not approve of.

In her first public speech as a former commissioner during an event held by the American Anititrust Institute and the George Washington University Competition Law Center, Ms. Slaughter recommended what she said was a non-exhaustive list of practices that the FTC should push in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

They are protection against corruption and undue influence, mechanisms to engage opposing viewpoints pre-decision, incentives to reach consensus, opportunities for transparency and accountability, changes in control that track changes in administration, and access to information and non-partisan experts for all members of the commission.

Despite the fact that commissioners going forward will not have the protection of for-cause removal, Ms. Slaughter said her recommendations will ensure that the FTC operates more in the public interest than it otherwise would.

For example, she said that commissioners who fear for their jobs if they anger the president might be more likely to take actions that benefit the president or his supporters, she said. As for ensuring all commissioners have access to non-partisan agency experts, Ms. Slaughter said that when she briefly returned to the agency last September, she was told that staff were no longer permitted to directly communicate with non-chair commissioners.

As for her legal efforts to preserve the for-cause removal protection, Ms. Slaughter said she would “much rather stand on the right side of history than on the winning side of any particular Supreme Court case.”

She also noted that the decision in her case could impact some two dozen other government boards or commissions with a similar structure, including the FCC.

And she said that she doesn’t believe that Supreme Court’s decision on the “unitary executive” theory “will stand the test of time.”

News: AgencyNews Discharge SupremeCourtNews WhiteHouseNews