Deregulation Swings the Pendulum Toward Financial Crash
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was reinstated as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission last week, after Judge Loren AliKhan ruled that the firing of her and a fellow Democrat was illegal under current statute. The other fired commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, resigned during the legal fight to take another job, but under this ruling he would be entitled to back pay.
Slaughter returned to work last Friday, and her name has been restored to the roster of FTC commissioners. It is likely to be a short-lived reprieve. The Supreme Court has allowed firings of other Democrats on independent commissions to stand while legal cases play out, and by its next term, it will probably overturn the 1935 precedent of Humphrey’s Executor, which stated that presidents can only fire FTC commissioners for cause. Despite historical practice, there have been no nominations of minority-party members on any independent commissions in Trump’s second term, and as he gains the power to fire at will, I don’t expect any minority-party positions will be filled.
Some might ask if there’s a real loss there. Minority-party commissioners are just voices in the wilderness. They cannot stop a determined majority from working its will in rulemaking or enforcement, and Trump’s functionaries are definitely determined. But just by speaking up, minority commissioners serve a critical function as public watchdogs of those actions, and in setting another path for action in the future. In Trump’s first term, we saw the power of then-FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to even shape events and win key reforms from a minority-party seat.
Slaughter’s first order of business upon her return to the FTC was demanding a vote on the “click to cancel” rule, which a federal judge set aside earlier this month. The Republican majority may not leap at Slaughter’s suggestion, but it’s important for her to say from a position of authority that the FTC can respond to the ruling. It claimed that the Commission didn’t allow enough opportunity for opponents of the rule to make their case, to restart the process, do all the required analyses, and protect the public from subscription scams that enrich deceptive businesses, and every one of those arguments is bunk.
https://prospect.org/economy/2025-07-21-deregulation-swings-pendulum-toward-financial-crash/