TechFreedom Urges Supreme Court to Protect FTC Independence
Group pressed the Supreme Court to safeguard the FTC’s autonomy from presidential interference.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2025 — The nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank TechFreedom has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration’s bid to weaken the Federal Trade Commission’s independence.
The filing responded to the administration’s emergency application to deny the FTC’s multi-member structure, a move that critics argue would give the president unchecked removal power over commissioners.
President Trump fired FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter in March. She was reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Last week, Chief Justice John Roberts blocked Slaughter’s return to the agency while the Court was reviewing her case.
TechFreedom argued that Trump’s actions conflict with the FTC Act and the Supreme Court’s precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935), which upheld protections for commissioners of independent agencies.
“Handing this President unchecked removal power would be utterly irresponsible,” said Corbin K. Barthold, TechFreedom’s director of appellate litigation. “Permitting the president to go on a firing spree would further destabilize the government and corrode the rule of law. He has already hollowed out some agencies to the point of losing a quorum, and he has made clear he would like to fire officials at the Federal Reserve — an act that could trigger a financial crisis. We shouldn’t be handing matches to an arsonist.”
Barthold added that the case requires judicial restraint and respect for precedent. Humphrey’s Executor, he said, “comfortably governs modern agencies,” offering a workable framework that has endured for nearly a century.
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