FTC commissioners who were fired by Trump are planning to file a lawsuit

The United States Department of Justice’s Ad Hominem Attack on President Trump’s Executive Order: Fact Finding, Court Action, and the Role of the Courts

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the Justice Department’s bid to remove her from a case challenging one of President Trump’s executive orders, accusing the department of attacking her as part of broader campaign to try to undermine the judicial system.

The stakes become much larger when the United States Department of Justice engages in this rhetorical strategy of ad hominem attack”, according to her order.

The strategy is designed to blame the decision-maker rather than the legal arguments for any loss in the federal judicial system.

It is almost impossible for me to get an Honest Ruling in D.C., as I believe judges in New York are biased against me, Trump claimed in a post early on Thursday.

“That fundamental promise, however, does not entitle any party — not even those with the power and prestige of the president of the United States or a federal agency — to demand adherence to their own version of the facts and preferred legal outcome,” she said.

Fact finding, she stressed, is the role of the courts, and she slammed the Justice Department’s assertion about “the need to curtail ongoing improper encroachments of President Trump’s Executive Power playing out around the country.”

“This line, which sounds like a talking point from a member of Congress rather than a legal brief from the United States Department of Justice, has no citation to any legal authority for the simple reason that the notion expressed reflects a grave misapprehension of our constitutional order,” she wrote.

She said that the job of the federal courts is to adjudicate whether an Executive Branch exercise of power is legal, or not, and that vigorous and stern defense of executive actions is helpful to the courts in resolving legal issues.

FTC Commissioners Cannot be Fired: The FTC Act Implies a Rule of Law, According to a lawsuit by Michael Ferguson

is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget.

Presidents are supposed to not fire people in direct violation of a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent. Ferguson said that the 1935 Supreme court case about the limits of president’s power in firing FTC Commissioners is wrong. Trump seems to have left out something that is not in the existing ruling, which is that Commissioners cannot be removed without cause.

The lawsuit also references statements that Ferguson made in front of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation before he was appointed as a commissioner by Joe Biden last year, promising that “If confirmed as an FTC Commissioner, I will abide by binding Supreme Court precedent.” Ferguson published a statement saying, “My Democrat former colleagues are entitled to their day in court, but I have no doubt that President Trump’s lawful powers will ultimately be confirmed.”

They want the District of Columbia federal court to restore the positions they lost because of their inefficiency, neglect of duty, and malfeasance, because they think they have the right to remain in office for another seven years under the FTC Act.