PRESS RELEASE: EPIC Condemns Supreme Court’s Assault on Agency Independence, Consumer Protection, and the Rule of Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. —  A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court struck a major blow against American consumers on Monday, rewriting constitutional law to bring the Federal Trade Commission and other independent agencies directly under the President’s thumb and threatening their ability to protect the public from harmful business and data practices.

Ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, a case challenging President Trump’s baseless firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Court upended nearly a century of precedent to hold that Congress can’t protect the heads of most independent agencies from being fired by the President without cause.

Across the federal government, Congress has sought to ensure that certain agencies carry out their functions with a degree of legal independence from the President. The officials who oversee agencies like the FTC and the National Labor Relations Board are appointed by the President but by statute can only be removed for good cause, not at will.

Today’s decision overrides Congress’s judgment and threatens to further politicize numerous government agencies responsible for enforcing privacy, consumer protection, and competition laws. By expanding presidential control over these agencies, the Court’s ruling raises doubts about whether critical safeguards for the public will remain insulated from political influence.

“Thanks to today’s shameful ruling, every person in the United States is more vulnerable to the political whims of the President than we were a day ago,” said EPIC Deputy Director and Director of Enforcement John Davisson. “The implications for our privacy and safety are grave. As corporations amass vast quantities of personal data and surveillance technologies become increasingly powerful, the public needs strong and independent watchdogs. Politicizing and weakening those institutions risks destroying the privacy protections that millions have benefited from.”

EPIC helped author an amicus brief in the case joined by 40 consumer protection and privacy organizations. The brief called for Commissioner Slaughter’s reinstatement to the FTC and urged the Supreme Court to uphold nearly a century of precedent protecting members of independent agencies from removal without cause. 

The brief explains that since Congress established its consumer protection mandate in 1938, the FTC’s work on important issues such as deceptive tobacco advertising, abusive financial practices, and children’s online privacy have depended on the agency’s insulation from political interference. Allowing Commissioners and other independent agency heads to be removed for purely political reasons is an affront to that independence.

EPIC has also released a statement regarding the Court’s other ruling, Chatrie v. United States, in which the court ruled that geofence searches violate a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

Please contact [email protected] with requests for further comment. 

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ABOUT EPIC

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Our mission is to secure the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age for all people through advocacy, research, and litigation.