Former GOP FCC General Counsel Criticizes Supreme Court over FTC Firing Case

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2026 – A former Republican General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission is slamming the Supreme Court over the decision in Trump v. Slaughter.

Bruce Fein, the agency's top lawyer in the early 1980s, criticized the Supreme Court for allowing President Trump to fire Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter without cause.

In a July 12 column in the Baltimore Sun, Fein said, “The decision betrayed cluelessness about the Constitution’s separation of powers and the history of independent agencies since the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887… The court has abdicated its responsibility to defend separation and arrest one-branch government.”

Fein served under Republican Chairman Mark Fowler, a Reagan appointee who repealed the Fairness Doctrine and supported other deregulatory steps as the cable TV industry emerged as a competitor to traditional TV stations and networks.

Slaughter argued that she was protected from presidential removal under federal law except “for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” Slaughter had not been accused of any of these actions.

“Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with whom he cannot work.” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision handed down by the Court. “Subordinates who exercise the President’s power are subject to removal by him. Then and only then can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people.”

Fein noted Trump was unable to point to a single action that showed the commissioner shortchanged the FTC’s objectives. He said Trump fired Slaughter purely out of patronage and not due to inefficiency in office, and separation of powers is not about maximizing patronage.

In the Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling, the court voted 6-3, expanding presidential control over independent agencies and upholding President Trump’s removal of Slaughter and fellow Democratic FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in March 2025. The president said the commissioners’ views didn’t align with his agenda.