• by Wendy Davis , July 25, 2025

Ousted Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter on Friday asked a federal appellate panel to allow her to return to the agency.

"The record here strongly supports the conclusion that Commissioner Slaughter’s service promotes the public interest," her lawyers argue in papers filed Friday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

She adds that if reinstated, she won't be in a position to hinder President Donald Trump's agenda because she will be outnumbered by Republican appointees.

Her new argument comes in a battle over Trump's ability to fire members of a federal agency. In March, Trump ousted Slaughter and Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, both Democrats, leaving the agency with only Republicans.

Slaughter and Bedoya sued for reinstatement, arguing that Congress established the FTC as a five-member agency, and provided that members could only be removed for efficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. (Bedoya resigned from the FTC while the case was pending and dropped his bid for reinstatement.)

Slaughter argued to U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington, D.C. that Trump's move was unlawful, noting that the Supreme Court ruled in the 1935 case called Humphrey's Executor that Franklin D. Roosevelt lacked authority to fire an FTC member without cause.

AliKhan agreed with Slaughter, ruling that Trump's attempt to fire her was "blatantly unlawful," and ordering her reintsated to the agency.

The White House immediately appealed that order, arguing that more recent Supreme Court rulings support the idea that the president can oust members of a federal agency, even when Congress said those members could only be removed for cause.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals directed Slaughter to respond to that argument, and also temporarily halted AliKhan's reinstatement order.

The Justice Department argued in its appeal that the Supreme Court issued a recent ruling that prevented the reinstatement of Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in that matter that the ruling "reflects our judgment that the government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty."

Slaughter counters in her new papers that the Supreme Court hasn't explicitly overruled the 90-year-old Humphrey's Executor decision.

The Justice Department is expected to respond to Slaughter's argument by Tuesday.