Rebecca Kelly Slaughter & Alvaro Bedoya: Trump’s move to fire us is a terrible warning for the US economy
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The writers are former US Federal Trade Commissioners challenging their removal
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re sceptical of regulators. But you should hope we win our recently-filed lawsuit to restore our positions at the US Federal Trade Commission after President Donald Trump informed us in March that he was firing us.
As commissioners of the FTC, we aggressively enforced antitrust laws, cracked down on unfair business practices and opposed corporate concentration of economic power at the expense of consumers, workers and small businesses.
It’s no secret that business and finance leaders have criticised our approach. But love us or loathe us, our dismissal is a terrifying warning sign for the future of the American economy.
The success of the American economy is powered by entrepreneurs who grow successful businesses. For 90 years businesses have known that the federal government will be both transparent and independent in applying the market regulation laws passed by Congress. The consistent application of the rule of law helps businesses invest for the long term.
We were both confirmed by the Senate for terms that have not concluded. One of us was originally nominated by President Trump himself and confirmed unanimously twice. Our lawsuit — which asks only that we be allowed to carry out those terms — is not about our own economic philosophies. It’s not about liberals versus conservatives or laissez-faire versus regulation. It’s about whether the US is ruled by laws or political whims.
In the 1935 case Humphrey’s Executor vs United States, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that the president cannot remove FTC commissioners without cause. For nearly a century, that same principle has protected the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators from political pressure. That insulation from politics matters if we want regulators to make decisions that are good for the American economy rather than politicians.
Today, the FTC is suing Amazon and Meta and enforcing a consent decree against X — all companies with personal, political and financial relationships with President Trump. Without removal protections, he could simply fire FTC members until he finds a group that will drop those actions. You might disagree with those lawsuits, but if these once-independent agencies become political weapons for Democratic and Republican presidents to come, there is no going back.
When any president can manipulate the FTC, the Fed, the SEC and the rest of our nation’s economic regulators for political gain, predictability is undermined. As we have seen with the recent imposition of tariffs, when uncertainty saps confidence, market instability follows.
Among other dangers, stripping these agencies of their independence drives investors in Treasury bonds away and even threatens to upend an agreement that allows European Economic Area residents and businesses to transfer data to the US, needlessly risking a multibillion-dollar engine of digital trade.
A group of leading scholars of financial regulation and central banking have urged the Supreme Court to preserve the independence of the Fed, in particular. And they state in unequivocal terms that “overturning or more narrowly construing Humphrey’s Executor would threaten Fed independence”. That should terrify Americans across the political and economic spectrum.
Whether it’s the Fed, the FDIC, the FTC or others, the ability of regulators to carry out our work without fear or favour is a bedrock principle that protects us all. It’s what prevents businesses from being ripped off by politicians and politicians from ripping apart our economy. That’s a principle worth preserving.
