By Dana Mattioli and Dave Michaels

President Trump fired the Federal Trade Commission's two Democratic commissioners on Tuesday, the latest moves in his campaign to exert more control over independent government agencies.

The two commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, were informed of their dismissals on Tuesday.

The move runs counter to current Supreme Court precedent that says the FTC's commissioners can only be removed for cause. The Trump administration has been clear that it is eager to see that precedent revisited.

An FTC spokesman declined to comment.

The move comes after the century-old agency's new chief, Andrew Ferguson, endorsed the president's authority to remove members of the commission, which has five members when it is at full strength.

The FTC is one of several commissions that were created to be bipartisan. It isn't supposed to have more than three members from the same political party. After Tuesday's dismissals, it will only have two members -- Ferguson and fellow Republican Melissa Holyoak -- both of whom are Republicans.

The Trump administration has embraced a legal theory that the Constitution gives the president unconditional authority to manage the executive branch, which is popular among some conservative jurists and thinkers. It has put that to the test by dismissing appointees at several agencies, betting the courts will side with its interpretation of the Constitution.

Trump earlier fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board, who is contesting her removal. The president also removed two Democratic appointees on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A judge last week ordered the reinstatement of the head of another independent agency, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, finding the administration had acted unlawfully by firing her.

In an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal, a White House official said the president wields "unrestricted" power to remove executive-branch officers who were confirmed by the Senate. "Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my administration's priorities," the letter states. "Accordingly, I am removing you from office pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution."

Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel, cited a Supreme Court decision from 1926, Myers v. United States, to justify the move. The Myers decision predated the high court's 1935 ruling in another case, known as Humphrey's Executor, which was squarely focused on the dismissal of an FTC commissioner during the Roosevelt administration.

The Supreme Court in Humphrey's Executor narrowed the president's power to remove FTC commissioners, saying they cannot be removed on policy grounds. Morse's email to Slaughter and Bedoya argues that FTC commissioners have different authorities -- their power is more aligned with the executive branch's duties -- than the justices understood in 1935.

Bedoya, who was sworn into office in May 2022, wrote on X that his dismissal was illegal and that he would challenge it. He suggested that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of several tech billionaires to attend Trump's January inauguration, would cheer his removal. The FTC is litigating two cases in federal court against Amazon.

"The president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies," Bedoya wrote.

Slaughter, who joined the FTC in 2018, said she was also illegally fired, "violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent."

"The administration clearly fears the accountability that opposition voices would provide if the President orders Chairman Ferguson to treat the most powerful corporations and their executives -- like those that flanked the President at his inauguration -- with kid gloves," Slaughter added.

Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com and Dave Michaels at dave.michaels@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 18, 2025 18:33 ET (22:33 GMT)

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