Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES—D.D.C.: FTC Commissioner Slaughter’s firing declared unlawful and without legal effect, (Jul 21, 2025)

By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

The court also dismissed as moot the claims of former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, who officially resigned from his post.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment in favor of Rebecca Slaughter, a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner allegedly fired without cause by President Donald Trump, and declared the firing unlawful and without legal effect. The court found that the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) on the removal of FTC Commissioners is clear and declined to ignore a 90-year-old, unanimous, binding Supreme Court precedent. The court also dismissed the claims of former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, finding that his official resignation from his position rendered his claims moot (Slaughter v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-00909-LLA (D.D.C. July 17, 2025)).

Background. As previously reported, on March 18, the president purportedly fired FTC Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya by email without any stated legal cause. The move left the Commission with only Chair Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak as sitting commissioners. Both are Republicans. With the departure of former Chair Lina Khan, the FTC was left, at the time, with only two of a possible five commissioners.

President Trump nominated Slaughter, a Democrat, to be FTC Commissioner in 2018. President Biden renominated Slaughter in 2023, and the Senate confirmed her again in a “bipartisan slate” that included Republican Commissioner-defendants Ferguson and Holyoak. President Biden nominated Bedoya, a Democrat, in 2021. President Trump appointed Ferguson as FTC Chair effective January 20, 2025. Republican Mark Meador, President Trump’s nominee to fill the Commission vacancy created by the expired term and departure of former Chair Lina Khan, was sworn in on April 16, 2025. Thus, the current composition of the FTC consists of Republican Commissioners Ferguson, Holyoak, and Mark Meador—who was confirmed by the Senate in April 2025.

The Slaughter and Bedoya complaint, which alleged that their firings without case were unlawful and without legal effect, noted that the FTC Act provides that no more than three of the FTC’s five Commissioners can be of the same political party. Slaughter and Bedoya asked the court to declare the President’s removal decision unlawful and that they are Commissioners; declare that FTC Commissioners are subject to Presidential removal only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office; and enjoin defendants by ordering them to treat Slaughter and Bedoya as FTC Commissioners, including by permitting them access to their office, staff, electronic devices, wages, and so forth, and that they take no further actions to “obstruct” Slaughter and Bedoya from carrying out their duties as FTC Commissioners.

Motion for summary judgment. Slaughter and Bedoya moved for summary judgment, seeking declaratory relief and a permanent injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from interfering with their roles as FTC commissioners. Alternatively, the plaintiffs sought a writ of mandamus affording the same relief. The Trump administration opposed the motion and filed a cross-motion for summary judgment.

Bedoya’s standing. The defendants argued that Bedoya’s claims have become moot because he resigned from his position as an FTC Commissioner, and the court agreed. The court dismissed Bedoya’s claims, finding that he no longer maintains a personal stake in the outcome of the action, as he has voluntarily relinquished the role he was fighting to keep, rendering the court unable to grant injunctive relief restoring him to that role.

Supreme Court precedent. The court determined that the answer to the key substantive question in this case—whether a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision about the FTC Act’s removal protections applies to a suit about the FTC Act’s removal protections—is patently obvious. Here, the defendants are asking the court to ignore a 90-year-old, unanimous, binding precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S. (1935), in which the Supreme Court upheld the FTC Act’s for-cause removal protection. Because it is the Supreme Court’s prerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents, the court declined to grant this request.

The court explained that, even if the modern-day FTC has outgrown its 1935 counterpart, it could not rule in the defendants’ favor in this case, stating, “It is not the role of this court to decide the correctness, prudence, or wisdom of the Supreme Court’s decisions—even one from ninety years ago.”

The court concluded that the administration’s attempt to remove Slaughter from her position as an FTC Commissioner did not comply with the removal protections under the FTC Act. Because the protections remain constitutional, the purported removal was unlawful and without legal effect, the court held, stating that it will issue a declaratory judgment that the president’s purported removal of Slaughter was invalid and that she is a rightful Commissioner of the FTC.

Equitable relief. The court further found that Slaughter is entitled to equitable relief, as she met her burden of showing entitlement to a permanent injunction, because such relief is available through targeted means, because a permanent injunction would remedy an irreparable injury given the unique nature of her role as part of a specially crafted independent agency, and because, the court said, “the balance of the equities and public interest heavily favor enforcing clearly established law that has been enacted by a coequal branch of government, reaffirmed by another coequal branch, and acquiesced to by thirteen executives over the course of ninety years.”

The Case is No. 1:25-cv-00909-LLA.

Judge: Alikhan, L.

Attorneys: Aaron Crowell (Clarick Gueron Reisbaum LLP) for Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Alexander William Resar, U.S. Department of Justice, for Donald J. Trump.

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