Ousted FTC Commissioners Sue Trump Over Firings

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission who were fired earlier this month by President Donald Trump without a specific cause, are suing Donald Trump and FTC leadership over their oustings. The lawsuit sets up a potential showdown regarding presidential authority as it relates to independent agencies. Slaughter and Bedoya, who are represented by the nonprofit anti-authoritarian organization Protect Democracy, are seeking back pay and reinstatement to their role on the commission. But more than that, they are hoping to successfully defend Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling that affirmed FTC commissioners could not be removed at will by the president. Bedoya told Gizmodo that he received the email informing him of his firing while he was at his daughter’s gymnastics class. “What’s extraordinary about that is that there was no cause given,” he said. FTC statute, which was upheld by t ... Read full article.