Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, SUPREME COURT NEWS—Trump succeeds in getting Chief Justice to halt reinstatement of removed FTC commissioner, (Sep 8, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

President Trump took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court after the D.C. Circuit denied his request for a stay.

Today, in an order signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., the U.S. Supreme Court has stepped in to allow the Trump administration, at least for now, to fulfill its wish to remove FTC Commissioner Rebecca K. Slaughter from her position.

“IT IS ORDERED that the July 17, 2025 order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, case No. 1:25-cv-909,” Chief Justice Roberts’ order states, “is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court. It is further ordered that a response to the application be filed on or before Monday, September 15th, 2025, by 4 p.m. (EDT).”

Binding, on-point precedent. Just less than a week ago, the D.C. Circuit had denied the same request, concluding that the Trump administration was not entitled to a stay pending appeal of the district court order reinstating Slaughter, who was removed without cause by the President in March. The key substantive question presented by the government’s appeal was whether the statute providing the FTC Commissioners for-cause removal protection unconstitutionally infringes on the President’s Article II power, the D.C. Circuit found. It concluded that the government is “highly unlikely” to succeed because “that exact question” was already asked and unanimously answered adversely to the government’s position in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935). Ruling in the government’s favor would have to defy “binding, on-point, and repeatedly preserved Supreme Court precedent.” And “[b]ucking such precedent is not within this court’s job description,” the D.C. Circuit had explained.

District court said it was unlawful. On July 17, 2025, a federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of Slaughter, finding her firing unlawful. The district court concluded that the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act on the removal of FTC Commissioners is clear and held that it was “patently obvious” that Humphrey’s Executor, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FTC Act’s for-cause removal protections, controlled.

The docket is No. 25A264.

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