Rebecca Kelly Slaughter returned to the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday after a court ruling that reversed President Donald Trump‘s effort to oust her.
“Back at my desk, back online, and have already moved to reinstitute the Click to Cancel Rule,” Slaughter wrote on her official government account on X. “Hope a majority of the Commission will join me – all Americans deserve to be protected from abusive subscription traps.”
Slaughter’s profile also was restored on the FTC website.
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay on a lower court decision that ordered Slaughter be reinstated. The Trump administration has been appealing that district court decision, which found that Trump’s removal of Slaughter without cause violated the congressionally intended independence of the agency. U.S. District Judge Loren Alikhan wrote, “The delicate balance between our three branches of government is sacrosanct; it lies at the heart of our democratic republic and cannot be cast aside in the name of one administration’s political whims.”
In March, Trump fired Slaughter and another Democratic commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya. They filed suit, calling their removals illegal, given that the FTC was set up as an independent agency. As the litigation went on, Bedoya announced that he was resigning, citing the financial constraints of having no other source of income while he remained.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, concluded that the Trump administration has “no likelihood of success” in its appeal, given controlling Supreme Court precedent.
The commission’s chairman, Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by Trump, sided with the president in his contention that he had the authority to remove Slaughter and Bedoya. “I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government,” Ferguson said in a statement in March.
Slaughter’s reference to the “click to cancel” rule, which was to have taken effect in July. That would require businesses to make it easier to cancel subscriptions, including to streaming services. An appeals court, though, vacated the rule before it was to take effect, citing failure to follow procedural requirements.
