The DC Court of Appeals just blocked President Trump from firing a Biden-holdover at the FTC, claiming it was ‘unlawful’ and she must remain at her job.
The three-judge panel was two Obama-appointees and one Trump-appointee. The latter dissented in the 2-1 ruling.
Here’s more from Fox News:
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., allowed a Biden-appointed member of the Federal Trade Commission to keep her job, at least for now, as part of a lawsuit centered on President Donald Trump’s authority to remove members of independent agencies without cause.
A three-judge panel said in a 2-1 order on Tuesday that a lower court’s decision that Trump unlawfully fired FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter could remain in place and that her firing was squarely at odds with Supreme Court precedent.
“The government has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent,” the panel wrote, adding that “bucking such precedent is not within this court’s job description.”
Slaughter was abruptly fired after Trump took office, rehired when Judge Loren AliKhan ruled in her favor in July, and then re-fired days later when the appellate court briefly paused AliKhan’s decision.
The three-judge panel, comprising two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee, lifted that pause on Tuesday, which means Slaughter can now return to work.
The Trump administration could now seek relief from the full appellate court bench or the Supreme Court. A Department of Justice spokesperson told Fox News Digital the government plans to appeal Tuesday’s order.
The Trump appointee on the panel, Judge Neomi Rao dissented, saying the “balance of equities here is ultimately indistinguishable” from other cases where the Supreme Court had temporarily greenlit Trump’s firings.
DOJ attorneys had argued for the appellate court to grant the Trump administration a stay and keep Slaughter’s firing in place, pointing to the Supreme Court’s decisions to do the same in recent separate cases involving other independent agencies, including two labor boards.
Just more activist judges ignoring Supreme Court rulings and trying to make a name for themselves on the back of Trump. This will get overturned and Slaughter will lose.