Washington, D.C.—The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, led by Dr. John Eastman, has submitted an amicus curiae brief backing President Donald Trump’s authority to remove inept members of the Federal Trade Commission.
The case, Trump v. Slaughter, challenges the constitutionality of the FTC’s structure and the precedent of Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. That decision, issued in 1935, limits the president’s ability to remove commissioners only to instances of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“Although the President’s removal power is not expressly stated in the Constitution, it is clearly implied, as a President cannot ‘faithfully execute the laws’ if his appointees or, as will often be the case with the statute at issue here, the appointees of a previous President, become defiant and insubordinate,” wrote Eastman.
The Claremont Institute contends that the FTC’s for-cause tenure provisions unlawfully curb the President’s removal power, thereby allowing unelected commissioners to exercise legislative, executive, and judicial functions in defiance of constitutional design.
Citing the 1926 Myers v. United States and two recent cases this decade, the brief urges the Court to overturn Humphrey’s Executor and restore full accountability within the executive branch as well as the Constitution’s separation of powers principles.
“[Humphrey’s Executor’s] reliance on the ‘quasi-legislative’ functions assigned to the Federal Trade Commission is incompatible with a majority of this Court’s renewed focus on the non-delegation doctrine, which requires that the core decisions of legislating be made by the Congress, not by unaccountable agencies to which Congress purports to delegate its lawmaking authority,” continued the brief.Trump v. Slaughter presents the Court with an opportunity to reaffirm the Founders’ vision that all executive officers ultimately answer to the President—and, through him, to the people.
Click here to read the full amicus brief.
About The Claremont Institute
The Claremont Institute is a leading think tank dedicated to restoring the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. Through litigation, scholarship, teaching, and policy advocacy, Claremont defends the Constitution and equips lawmakers and leaders to uphold its guarantees.
