Supreme Court grants temporary stay in FTC commissioner removal case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to keep a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission off the agency while the justices consider his request to remove her, issuing an administrative stay that pauses a lower court order that had reinstated the commissioner. Chief Justice John Roberts granted the short-term relief and asked Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter to file a response by next Monday as the high court weighs the broader constitutional question at the center of the dispute.

The Justice Department sought the emergency stay after U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled in July that Trump’s March attempt to remove Slaughter violated statutory protections that restrict removal of FTC commissioners to specific causes such as inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld that ruling in a 2-1 decision on September 2, a development that prompted the administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court. Slaughter was reinstated after the appellate ruling, promptly returned to work and posted dissenting opinions online, only to be removed again as the litigation proceeded.