Two former democratic members of the Federal Committee of Trade sued President Trump on Thursday for his decision to shoot them from the organization, accusing him of illegal excessive executive power.
Mr Trump shot democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya on March 18, upgrading the consumer protection service, which is usually run by three members from the president’s party and two from the opponent.
In a lawsuit filed at the United States District Court for the Columbia District, lawyers for Ms Slaughter and Mr Bedoya claimed that Mr Trump’s redundancies were without cause and violated the federal law. They referred to a precedent of the Supreme Court of 1935 who stated that the president could not shoot members of the independent regulatory councils on policy disputes.
“In short, it is the background, a binding precedent that a president cannot remove an FTC commissioner without a cause,” the lawsuit said. “The action of the president is unacceptable according to government law.”
The White House, who did not immediately respond to a request for comments, said in the past that “President Trump has the legal power to manage staff within the executive branch”.
The lawsuit was the last legal battle for Mr Trump’s efforts to expand the power of the presidency. In recent months, more than 50 judicial decisions have in many cases temporarily stopped the actions of the administration, ranging from its aggressive deportation until the firing of civil servants.
Legal battles have also influenced the regulatory authorities that Congress has established as an independent of direct control of the White House. While regulators are appointed by the president, many have traditionally wide room to determine the direction of their organizations.
But Mr Trump fired earlier Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat at the National Council of Labor Relations, who was restored by a federal court this month. The administration has appealed to this decision.
Mr Trump also signed an executive mandate last month that influenced the FTC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Committee on Communications and the National Council of Labor Relations. The executive order ordered these organizations to submit proposed regulations to the White House for a review, and to declare that they must accept as commitments to the interpretations of the President and the Ministry of Justice, including measures.
Ms Slaughter and Mr Bedoya’s lawsuit also called the two Republican Commissioners of FTC – the president of the organization Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak – as defendants. Also named was the executive director of the organization, David B. Robbins.
The 1914 law that introduced FTC says that commissioners can be removed from the five -member Board of Directors for “ineffectiveness, neglect or abuse in power”. The Supreme Court reinforced these protections in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to shoot a FTC member
In a letter sent by Mr Trump last week informing one of the commissioners of the termination, the White House said that the protections established by the Supreme Court’s ruling do not apply to those who led FTC today.
Mr Ferguson said in a statement last week that he had no “doubts” about the President’s constitutional power to remove his colleagues. FTC did not respond immediately to request for comments on the treatment.
In lawsuit, lawyers for Mrs Slaughter and Mr Bedoya said the two have “refused access to their offices” and are now referred to as former members of the Commission on the FTC website. Their staff have also been put on a administration license, according to the lawsuit.
FTC is responsible for some of the biggest confrontation between corporate America and the federal government. In April, the organization is scheduled to face Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and other applications, in an antitrust test on whether the technological giant was drowned illegally hatching competitors when he bought Instagram and Whatsapp.
The FTC has also filed lawsuits against Amazon, claiming that it has made it difficult for consumers to cancel the primary subscription service and to compress small traders using its website.
Under Mr Ferguson, the organization has increasingly turned to the power of the large online platform over speech and speech. Last month, the Agency began to seek comments from people and businesses who said their positions had been removed from social media sites.
