U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily permitted President Donald Trump’s firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.
Roberts issued a stay, pausing a July 17 ruling that claimed Slaughter’s removal was illegal. The stay allows the case to be further considered.
“IT IS ORDERED that the July 17, 2025 order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia…is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court,” the order reads. “It is further ordered that a response to the application be filed on or before Monday, September 15th, 2025, by 4 p.m. (EDT).”
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court order reinstating Slaughter in a 2–1 ruling. The majority opinion cited the Supreme Court’s 1935 Humphrey’s Executor v. United States precedent, which limits a president’s power to remove FTC commissioners without cause.
Slaughter and another fired FTC commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, sued Trump in March over their terminations.
In a July ruling on Slaughter’s termination, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan wrote, “The sole justification for granting the application was that the President ’may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents.’”
“Humphrey’s Executor, of course, is one of those precedents, and it dealt with, as here, the FTC. Accordingly, any suggestion that Humphrey’s Executor may not extend to other agencies cannot be read as an invitation to sidestep its application to the FTC,” she wrote.
“Humphrey’s Executor” stems from a 1935 Supreme Court ruling that upheld limitations Congress placed on removing FTC members.
