Last week, a U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia held that President Trump did not have statutory authority to remove Rebecca Kelly Slaughter of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) without cause. Judge Loren AliKhan held that Trump’s “at-will” removal of Slaughter was unlawful and granted a permanent injunction requiring the Trump administration to permit her return to the office without interference. Read our full analysis here.
On July 21, the Trump administration sought a stay of this order, just as it did in Wilcox and Harris. Indeed, in June 2025 another federal court in the District of Maryland—in Boyle v. Trump—rejected President Trump’s at-will removal of several members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. A stay request submitted to the Supreme Court in that case is awaiting a decision.