Democratic Leaders Submit Bicameral Amicus Brief to Supreme Court in Fight Against Trump’s Illegal Removal of FTC Commissioner Slaughter

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate and House Democratic leaders, including Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, today filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in Trump v. Slaughter challenging President Trump's unlawful attempt to remove Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC's mission is to protect the American public from unfair, deceptive and anticompetitive business practices. Lawmakers argued that President Trump's attempt to remove Commissioner Slaughter without cause jeopardizes the integrity of independent federal agencies and undermines the FTC's ability to enforce civil antitrust laws and protect the public from fraudsters and monopolists.

"The structure of multimember independent agencies is not only entrenched by history and tradition. It also reflects an eminently reasonable interpretation of Congress's array of Article I powers, respects the President's Article II authority, and comports with broader constitutional values," the lawmakers wrote, underscoring the strong constitutional rationale of independent agencies, like the FTC.

Along with Sen. Cantwell, the brief was signed by Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Banking Committee; Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust; House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-8); Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO-2); Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-8), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee; Frank Pallone (D-NJ-6), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY-12), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee.

Independent agency commissioners are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and their actions are intended to be shielded from presidential interference.

"Indeed, at-will removals of commissioners of independent agencies would lead regulated entities and the public to believe that the President is able to pick winners and losers in the American economy through intervening in individual cases," wrote the lawmakers. "That would detrimentally alter the way the public interacts with these regulators, and, consequently, the economic choices the regulators make."

The full brief is available here.

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