The Supreme Court on Monday issued an order that said President Donald Trump could fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), for now, despite federal law that restricts the president’s ability to control the independent agency.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was fired by Trump from her role as a commissioner at the FTC in March. She, along with another Democratic commissioner who was fired, have challenged Trump’s firing.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued the order Monday and temporarily blocked a judge’s previous ruling that allowed Slaughter to be reinstated to the FTC while the case plays out in court.
Slaughter briefly returned to the FTC last week as a result of the lower court’s ruling but the Supreme Court’s decision allows her to be removed. She previously said in a statement online that she was eager to get back to work and was glad the lower court recognized that Trump “is not above the law.”
In a statement reported by NBC News, Slaughter said she would see the case “through to the end.”
“In the week I was back at the FTC it became even more clear to me that we desperately need the transparency and accountability Congress intended to have at bipartisan independent agencies,” she said.
It’s not clear how the justices will respond to the Trump administration’s emergency request to give the president more ability to fire independent agency employees.
Roberts instructed Slaughter to file her opposition to the government’s application for an administrative stay in the case by Monday. The Trump administration is seeking the stay, keeping Slaughter out of office, to avoid “disruption” on the commission.
Slaughter and the other Democrat, Alvaro Bedoya, were both fired by Trump earlier this year for not aligning with his administration’s “priorities.” Their firings are a challenge to the Humphrey’s Executor v. United States Supreme Court decision from 1935 that upheld limits on the president’s ability to fire commissioners from the FTC without cause.
Congress imposed the restriction on the White House to keep the FTC protected from pressure from the president.