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The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to fire many Democrat-appointed members of independent agencies, but one case still moves through the legal system, which has the greatest meaning for the president’s authority to do so.
Slaughterv. In Trump, Biden-appointed Federal Trade Commission members vowed to fight what she calls “illegal shootings,” setting up a scenario where the case could land on the Supreme Court.
The case will raise the most direct questions ever for judiciary about Humphrey’s Enforcer vs. the United States, a nearly century-old decision on the president’s power over independent regulatory bodies.
John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital that the High Court would likely be on his side with the president if the case arrives there.
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“I don’t think Humphrey’s enforcers will survive the Supreme Court, at least in their current form,” Shu said.
What is Humphrey’s Enforcer?
Humphrey’s enforcement centered on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to fire the FTC commissioner. The case marked the first case of the Supreme Court restricting the president’s right to remove by finding that Roosevelt has stepped over his authority. The court found that the president cannot dismiss the FTC commissioner without any reason for fraud or other reasons, before the end of his seven-year term, as outlined in Congress in the FTC Act.
However, the FTC’s functions are primarily focused on fighting anti-competitive business practices, expanding in 90 years from Humphrey’s enforcer.
“The Federal Trade Commission in 1935 is very different from today’s Federal Trade Commission,” Shu said.
He noted that today’s FTC can launch investigations, issue subpoena, file lawsuits and impose financial penalties. The FTC now has executive, semi-uniformity and quasi-judicial functions, Shu said.
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If the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow two Labor Committee members to be fired is any indication, the High Court is ready to make the FTC less independent and hold Trump more accountable.
In the 6-3 order, the Supreme Court cited the “substantial enforcement power” that the National Labor Relations Commission and the Merit System Protection Commission have, saying the president “can exclude executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf.”
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The order did not mention Humphrey’s enforcer, but that and other moves show that the Supreme Court lacks a 90-year-old ruling and is open to turning it around.
The Rebecca Massacre and the case of Alvaro Bedoja are closest to the centre of Humphrey’s enforcers.
Where does Slaughter’s case stand?
Slaughter enjoyed a short-lived victory when a federal judge in Washington, DC discovered that Trump had violated the constitution and ruled in her favour on July 17th.
She was able to return to the FTC for several days, but the Trump administration appealed the decision, and on July 21, the Court of Appeal suspending the judgment of a lower court judge.
Judge Lauren Alican said in her summary judgment that the massacre case was roughly the same as William Humphrey’s.
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Federal Trade Commission Member (FTC) Rebecca Massacre at a House Judiciary Committee hearing held in Washington, DC on Thursday, July 13th, 2023.
“It is not this court’s role to determine the accuracy, prudence or wisdom of the Supreme Court decision, even 90 years old,” writes Biden’s appointee Alican. “Even if Humphrey’s enforcer’s court had thought at the time of its decision, this court will never again speculate.”
The lawsuit stems from Trump’s firing of two Democrat-appointed members of the five-member committee, Massacre and Bedoya. They alleged that Trump rebelled to Humphrey’s enforcers by firing them in March with a letter that “almost words only” sent a century ago, reflecting “almost words only”;
Beduya later resigned, but the massacre has not retreated from the legal battle that appears to have Trump’s advantage.
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“Like dozens of other federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission has been protected from presidential politics for almost a century,” Slaughter said in a statement after the reignited. “I will continue to fight illegal dismissals and look at this case, partly because Congress created an independent institution.”
A three-judicial panel of judges, now made up of two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee, has considered a long-term moratorium and asked to file a court application by July 29th.
Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, covering the Department of Justice and legal affairs. Email story tips to Ashley.oliver@fox.com.
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