Ex-FTC commissioner calls on Congress to reassert authority after SCOTUS decision

Source: The Hill

06/29/26 3:18 PM ET


Former Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter on Monday called on Congress to reassert its authority as a coequal branch of government after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump had the authority to fire her last year. The conservative majority ruled 6-3 in favor of the president, expanding presidential power over an independent agency within the executive branch and overturning 91 years of legal precedent.

“Listen, I think what we really need from Congress is for members on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, to reassert their constitutional responsibility to provide checks on an out of control executive, and they have powers to do so, including the power of the purse and the power of oversight,” Slaughter told reporters during a virtual press conference.

Slaughter added that it was in “everybody’s interest, whomever party you are from, for Congress to use that power, which it really has been neglecting.” If Congress chooses not to use its authority over Trump, Slaughter said she hopes a future Democratic president will appoint commissioners who will “use the agency’s authority to protect the American people from the cheating and lying by businesses that are taking advantage of them.”

She later said that the ruling does not “end the conversation” about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) role in protecting consumers while maintaining its political independence. The ruling overturned the landmark 1935 decision Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which set the standard that Congress can rein in a president from firing the heads of agencies with “quasi-judicial” and “quasi-legislative” functions.

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5945806-rebecca-slaughter-congress-supreme-court-ruling/