More of Trump's descent into dictatorship

Two illegal firings that will increase prices for consumers and concentrate more power in Trump's hands — unless the courts stop him.

Robert Reich Mar 19

Friends,

I would not impose on you for a third time today unless it was particularly urgent.

This afternoon, Trump illegally fired the two Democratic commissioners on the five-member Federal Trade Commission — Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya.

Commissioner Slaughter had this to say:

"The President illegally fired me from my position as a Federal Trade Commissioner, violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent."

Commissioner Bedoya said this:

I’m a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The president just illegally fired me.

The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists. Our staff is unafraid of the Martin Shkrelis and Jeff Bezos of the world. They take them to court and they win.

Now, the president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies.

Together with Chair Lina Khan and Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, I spent my time at the FTC fighting for small town grocers and pharmacists and for people in Indian country going hungry because food was too expensive. I fought for workers getting screwed on pay and benefits and overtime. I fought for their right to organize. I fought tech companies who think they can track you and your kids every hour of every day so they can pocket their next billion.

Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or someone who’s so disgusted with Washington you can barely watch the news, the FTC has worked for you.

Who will Trump’s FTC work for? Will it work for the billionaires? Or will it work for you?

It was an honor to serve my country at the FTC. It was an honor to work alongside its staff.

And to everyone who is watching all of this unfold, don’t be scared. Fight back.

***

The FTC enforces consumer protection and antitrust laws, and has had a bipartisan structure where no more than three of the five commissioners can come from the same party.

I have no doubt that one result of Trump’s illegal firings today will be higher prices for American consumers because the FTC cop is now off the beat.

In the 1976, President Carter appointed me to run the FTC’s policy team, which advised the commissioners on which corporations were committing the most heinous frauds and were the worst monopolists. I had the honor of doing that for four years. We saved American consumers a huge amount of money.

Trump’s actions today also pose a direct challenge to settled law. Congress established the Federal Trade Commission as an independent commission in 1914, and gave each of the FTC’s five commissioners a fixed term of office and protection from being fired by a president.

In 1935, in a case entitled Humphrey’s Executor vs. the United States, the Supreme Court upheld the law protecting FTC commissioners from being fired by a president.

President Herbert Hoover had appointed and the Senate had confirmed William E. Humphrey to be a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for Humphrey's resignation because Humphrey was a conservative, and was hobbling many of Roosevelt's New Deal policies.

When Humphrey refused to resign, Roosevelt fired him. But the FTC Act only allows a president to remove a commissioner for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." (Since Humphrey died shortly after being dismissed, his executor sued to recover Humphrey's lost salary.)

A unanimous Supreme Court found that the FTC Act was constitutional and that Humphrey's dismissal on policy grounds was unjustified. The Court reasoned that the Constitution had never given "illimitable power of removal" to the president.

The Court rejected the government's main argument, which relied on the Supreme Court's prior decision in Myers v. United States (1926). In that case the Court had upheld the president's right to remove officers who were "units of the executive department."

But in Humphrey’s Executor, the Court ruled that the FTC was different because it was a body created by Congress to perform quasi-legislative and judicial functions. The Myers precedent, therefore, did not apply.

Until Trump’s blatant move today, the Humphrey’s ruling had shielded independent, bipartisan multi-member agencies from direct control by the White House.

Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya are appealing their firings by Trump. I expect their cases will find their way to the Supreme Court, where a few justices may want to overrule Humphrey’s Executor. My betting is that most justices will abide by this precedent. Then the question becomes whether Trump will abide by the Supreme Court.

Trump’s descent into dictatorship continues unabated. The losers today are not only American consumers. They are all of us who care about American democracy.