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# Senate Confirms Trump Nominee Mark Meador to FTC on Party-Line Vote
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/senate-confirms-trump-nominee-mark-meador-to-ftc-on-party-line-vote/
- Published: 2025-04-11T18:44:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-11T05:54:47.000Z
- Description: Meador confirmed amid a legal challenge by two ousted Democratic FTC commissioners.
- Author: Jericho Casper
- Tags: Congress, #with-siderail, Mark Meador, Donald Trump, FTC, Mike Lee, Heritage Foundation, Andrew Ferguson, Melissa Holyoak, Public Knowledge, Humphrey's Executor, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2025 – The Senate on Thursday confirmed antitrust attorney **Mark Meador** to the Federal Trade Commission in a 50-46 party-line vote, finalizing a 3-0 Republican majority just two weeks after President **Donald Trump** removed the FTC’s two Democratic commissioners.

Meador, who most recently worked in private practice and served as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Tech Policy Center, previously held roles at the Justice Department and in the office of Sen. **Mike Lee**, R-Utah. He joins Chairman **Andrew Ferguson** and Commissioner **Melissa Holyoak** — both Trump appointees — at the now all-Republican commission.

Ferguson [issued a short statement](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/04/ftc-chairman-ferguson-congratulates-mark-meador-confirmation-ftc-commissioner?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) Thursday congratulating Meador, saying, “Mark is a brilliant antitrust lawyer who will be a great asset to the Trump-Vance FTC.” 

Public Knowledge [issued a statement](https://publicknowlede.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1cc299b535534e10c267b2c8e&id=b2df13b499&e=0c45e003c7&ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) applauding senators who opposed Meador’s confirmation, calling the firings a “direct attack on the independence of an agency that has long served as a cornerstone of consumer protection.” The group also led [a March 21 letter](https://nclnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Signed-FTC-Independence-Letter.pdf?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) signed by over a dozen public interest organizations urging lawmakers to reject Meador’s nomination.

Ousted Democratic Commissioners **Rebecca Kelly Slaughter** and **Alvaro Bedoya**, have argued that their fixed-term roles are protected by federal statute and Supreme Court precedent. In a lawsuit filed March 27 they asked a federal judge to block the administration from locking them out of their posts.

“It is bedrock, binding precedent that a President cannot remove an FTC Commissioner without cause,” the pair wrote in their [March 27 complaint](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278902/gov.uscourts.dcd.278902.1.0%5F2.pdf?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com). “And yet that is precisely what has happened here.”

They described Trump’s action as a violation of “a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent.” In *Humphrey’s Executor v. United States* (1935), the Supreme Court ruled that presidents cannot remove FTC commissioners without cause — a protection designed to preserve the agency’s independence from executive overreach.

But current Ferguson has cast doubt on whether that precedent still applies. Speaking [at a policy conference last month](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/ftcs-ferguson-says-tech-censorship-may-violate-antitrust-law/), Ferguson called *Humphrey’s Executor* “outdated,” arguing that the FTC in 2025 exercises far more executive power than it did in 1935.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers sharply criticized the Democratic-led FTC under the Biden administration, accusing it of veering from its traditional role.

In a joint statement, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair **Brett Guthrie**, R-Ky., and Rep. **Gus Bilirakis**, R-Fla., said the FTC had “abandoned its rich bipartisan tradition and historical mission in favor of a radical agenda and partisan mismanagement.” 

During his confirmation process last year, Ferguson pledged to “abide by binding Supreme Court precedent,” [saying](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278902/gov.uscourts.dcd.278902.1.0%5F2.pdf?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) that *Humphrey’s Executor* “remains binding precedent until \[the Court\] sees fit to reconsider \[it\].”