As part of a case challenging President Trump’s power to dismiss members of independent agencies without reason, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the appointment of a Biden appointee to the Federal Trade Commission, allowing her to retain her position for the time being.
The three-judge majority upheld the lower court’s ruling on Tuesday, saying that Trump’s termination of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter was illegal and contradicted previous decisions by the Supreme Court.
“The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,” the panel stated in a written decision.
After Trump’s inauguration, Slaughter was fired without warning. Last month, she was rehired after Judge Loren Ali Khan decided in her favor. However, a few days later, she was fired again when the appeal court temporarily halted Ali Khan’s judgment.
The suspension was removed on Tuesday by the three-judge panel, which includes two Obama appointments and one Trump appointee, allowing Slaughter to return to work. This ruling is appealable to the Trump administration.
The DOJ’s legal team had urged the appeals court to uphold the Trump administration’s stay request, citing a previous Supreme Court ruling that had done the same for other autonomous agencies.
“The court’s reinstatement of a principal officer of the United States—in defiance of recent Supreme Court precedent staying similar reinstatements in other cases—works a grave harm to the separation of powers and the President’s ability to exercise his authority under the Constitution,” according to the lawyers.