• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday granted the Trump administration's emergency petition to temporarily halt a lower court order that reinstated Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.

Roberts didn't give a reason for the order. He directed Slaughter to respond to the administration's petition by September 15.

President Donald Trump ousted Slaughter and Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in March, saying in a letter to them: "Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities."

The move left the five-member agency with just three commissioners -- all Republicans.

Slaughter sued for reinstatement and a district court judge and appellate panel sided with her, basing their decisions on the Supreme Court's 1935 decision in a case known as Humphrey's Executor. The court said in that 90-year-old case that Franklin D. Roosevelt lacked authority to oust an FTC commissioner except for three reasons set out by Congress -- inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.

Last week, U.S. Solicitor General sought an emergency order blocking Slaughter's reinstatement, arguing that more recent Supreme Court decisions -- including its May ruling halting the reinstatement of Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection -- allow Trump to oust Slaughter.

"Under this Court’s cases, the President must be able to remove, at will, members of multimember commissions that exercise substantial executive power," the Solicitor General wrote.